"We estimate that half of the death casualties were children, but many more were injured," UNICEF representative for Pakistan Omar Abdi told the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a UN-funded news agency.

"The data hasn't been registered yet. But half of the population of Pakistan is under 18 so we would estimate out of those people who have died, half of them are children," Abdi added.

The October 8 quake hit at the start of a school day and there were immediate fears that children could make up the bulk of the casualties when it became clear that thousands of schools had collapsed.

Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, told AFP two days after the disaster that "a whole generation has been lost" in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, the worst-hit areas.

Local government figures show that around 17,000 students alone died, Abdi said, while there were many other young people who were not in school at the time.

"They have also been affected emotionally. Those that were going to school now find that there are no schools. They are at risk of diseases. As for the impact on children, it's significant," Abdi added.

Nearly four-fifths of all schools and public buildings collapsed in the quake, he said.

Women were badly hit by the quake as well as the young, UNICEF's Abdi added.

"Women were at home. As you know, women in these places do not work outside the home so that could be one reason," he said.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake is confirmed to have killed nearly 74,000 people in Pakistan and more than 1,300 in India. However humanitarian groups estimate the toll to be 86,000 in Pakistan alone.

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