Quake Death Toll Could Reach 100,000

B H U J, India, Jan. 29 -- The discovery of two living babies today —an 8-month-old boy covered in his dead mother's blood but cradledin her lap and a 7-month-old girl — captured the heartbreak and thesingular miracles of India's killer earthquake.

Survivors found in mountain of rubble

The rescues gave rare cause for hope following the earthquake,which killed at least 6,200 people and as many as 20,000 — or more.Damage was estimated at up to $5.5 billion. India's prime ministeracknowledged today his country was ill-prepared fordisasters.

In the boy's case, doctors said the warmth of his mother's bodyhelped him survive three days in the ruins of a collapsed buildingin Bhuj's Kansara Market.

"We saw the baby in the mother's lap, we saw some movement fromthe baby," said R.K. Thakur, a Border Security Forces assistantcommandant. "I took the baby in my hand and I found it wasalive."

The boy, Murtza Ali, was rushed to a medical center. Survivingrelatives were found and the child was later conscious and smiling,Thakur said, adding: "It was miraculous."

The girl, Sweta Kumar, was rescued from the rubble of her homein a town east of Bhuj. Hours later, her joyous mother and otherrelatives took turns holding her close.

There are few even partly happy endings in western India thesedays.

Hope for Survivors Dwindling

Survivors complained today that confusion and a lack ofequipment was hampering rescue efforts. Rescuers lacked cranes andbulldozers, and many units did not even have generators, makingnight work impossible without lights. Soldiers hunting forsurvivors began work at first light and stopped when the sun wentdown.

The hope of finding many more survivors "is dwindling hour byhour, but as long as there is hope, we won't give up," saidJoachim Ahrens, who represents a Swiss rescue team in Bhuj.

In the first estimate of damage, the Federation of IndianChamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary-General Amit Mitra saidquake losses may be as high as $5.5 billion besides a dailyproduction loss of $111 million. However, officials in Gujaratstate, epicenter of Friday's magnitude 7.9 quake, put the figure at$2.17 billion.