Hundreds ofcars andtrucks struggled down narrow roads in northern Pakistan yesterday, evacuating thousands of injured victims as hopes faded of finding survivors after the country's worst earthquake struck on Saturday.

"Get out of my way, I have to take my brother to the hospital," shouted Aleem Khan, a schoolteacher, as he carried a teenager on foot to reach a hospital van parked 5km up the road from Balakot, once a picturesque riverside town.