A HUDDERSFIELD hospital consultant who travelled to Pakistan to help victims of the Kashmir earthquake today relived the horrors he faced on his mercy mission.

Accident and emergency consultant Amjid Mohammed was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the disaster.

The quake - which struck last month - severely injured 69,000 people and left 73,000 dead.

More than three million still remain homeless.

Mr Mohammed - who works in accident and emergency departments at both Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, said: "It was mayhem.

"There were people with severe limb and life-threatening injuries still coming down from the mountains.

"There were patients who had not been attended to for a week or ten days after the earthquake.

"The numbers were absolutely huge.

"Things were a lot more grim than we thought they would be."

Mr Mohammed was among a team of ten medics who travelled to the city of Abbottabad in Kashmir.

The group, organised by the charity Islamic Help, were based at the overcrowded Ayub Medical Centre.

Drs Nadeem Ghafoor and Dilshad Ashraf, of the Meltham Group Practice, were also part of the aid mission.

Mr Mohammed said: "The ward had 56 beds but there were nearly three times as many patients there.

"Patients were sharing beds with people they didn't even know and there were people on mattresses on the floor.

"We worked 18 hours a day. It was exhausting. We had just got into a good system when we were hit by the aftershock."

The hospital was severely damaged by the aftershock, which measured 5.6.

Patients had to be rushed outside as the hospital walls shook.

He said: "There were 700 patients outside on the lawn with serious injuries.

"I had never been in an earthquake situation before. We had to organise shelter for them and for the next 48 hours we worked outside."

Patients were sent to other medical centres in the area.

He said: "There were kids with amputations and severe injuries that will affect them for the rest of their lives. But there was no crying - just blank, expressionless faces.

"They have all lost so much.

"We all feel very guilty and upset now that we are home. But we are hoping to go back there soon."