RAWALPINDI, Oct 15: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday he doubted that more survivors could be found from the devastating earthquake, adding the death toll was likely to rise beyond 38,000.

“Now eight days are gone. There are still rescue operations going on. But they say technically after eight days, the chance of miracle saving is slim,” he told reporters during a visit to Chaklala airbase, the main arrival point for international aid.

The president said he had ordered a more detailed study of the toll from the earthquake. “I think as far as we are concerned roughly about 38,000 are dead. But I cannot vouch for its accuracy. I think it will keep rising.

“When we go into these villages of the Neelum and Jhelum river valleys, I am reasonably sure it is going to rise,” he said.

Gen Musharraf said he was ‘extremely grateful’ for the international assistance Pakistan was receiving but said the country still needed more blankets and especially tents as winter is about to set in.

But he dismissed criticism that relief was not reaching survivors.

“Relief is reaching them,” Gen Musharraf said. “But yes, if you say, can I give you a 100 per cent guarantee that it’s reaching them and no wrong man is taking it, no sir, I will not give you that guarantee.”

“We have hundreds of thousands or millions of people affected. Obviously there will be people who don’t require a tent and he’s still taking a tent and running away with the damn tent.

“As long as 90 per cent is going to the right people, if 10 per cent are being turned away or someone’s stealing, don’t bother about that.”

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao earlier told AFP that the quake had killed 38,000 people, injured 62,000 others and left some 3.3 million people homeless, a sharp increase from the previous toll of 25,000 dead.

“Some 3.3 million people have been made homeless. Their houses have either been destroyed or damaged,” he said.

But heavy clouds and rain temporarily grounded helicopter airlifts on Saturday, and more squalls were forecast in yet another obstacle for soldiers and aid agencies racing against time to distribute food, blankets and shelter.

With roads blocked by landslides, helicopters have become the only aid lifeline to cut-off villages. This was the second time since the quake that flights had been halted by monsoon rains drenching the Himalayas.

“The relief operation has been badly disrupted by this bad weather. There are many places we haven’t yet reached. But we hope to get to some of them today,” said Sardar Anwar Khan, president of Azad Kashmir.

Thousands of destitute people huddled under plastic tents as the rain lashed Muzaffarabad, turning the roads to mud. Fresh snow was also seen settling on the mountain peaks outside the city.

“In these conditions, people will freeze. They will suffer hypothermia,” said Altuf Musani, the World Health Organization coordinator in Muzaffarabad, which has largely been reduced to rubble.

“There is a small window of less than a week to get to them. Those who are critically injured have very little chance.”

Mr Musani said there were many serious cases of gangrene among the injured who had come down from the mountains on foot in search of help, but the rain has slowed evacuations and many of the injured wait for days for proper care.

A doctor working for a British medical aid charity who has toured the quake-hit area warned that thousands more could die from injuries if help did not arrive soon.

“Several thousand people will die in the next few days. Their wounds have turned septic, they have fractures,” Sean Keogh of Britain-based Medical Relief International (Merlin), told AFP.