Pakistani town digging against hope

BALAKOT, Pakistan, Thursday (AFP) - Digging into what used to be a school in this ravaged Pakistani town, the hundreds of rescue workers are still looking for signs of life. But deep down, they know they will only confirm more death.

Commotion breaks out as a sniffing dog brought in by a team from Abu Dhabi senses a possibility under a concrete block.

"There was indeed something but not a sign of life. We are going to dig but without any hope. Up to now we've only found one child and he was dead," a police officer in the team said.

Behind him an excavator gets ready to rip into the debris. Several hundred children could still be under the ruins of the school, which crumbled like nearly all other homes in this city of 40,000 people.

Under a buzz of helicopters and a stench of death, people in this destroyed town are clinging to hope. Some watch foreign teams and their equipment - other frenzied residents tear into the rubble with picks or their bare hands.

Keeping them going are the tales of miracles, such as that of a 10-day-old baby who was pulled out alive Tuesday after three days under the rubble, now being snuggled in the arms of his aunt.

"His name is Janaat. His mother was killed and he was found at the side of his dead one-and-a-half-year-old brother," the young woman says.

A French civil security team that saved five children is being asked by residents to work wonders again.