A RESCUE worker from North Yorkshire spoke today of the devastation teams faced in earthquake-hit Pakistan - and the moment that she heard the voices of two boys who were trapped in the rubble.

Members of the 14-strong team from the International Rescue Corps, who returned home this weekend, told of the desperate situation they faced when they arrived in the quake-torn region.

Julie Ryan, 38, from Welburn, near Malton, helped to pull two teenage boys from the ruins in the city of Muzaffarabad five days after the disaster hit.

She said: "It was total devastation on a massive scale. It was like taking York and flattening it.

"We flew over the area to land and it was just complete devastation and I just thought: 'Oh my God, this is huge'.

"Nobody had seen it yet because the roads were down. I thought good God, this is going to be horrendous."

Julie, who works as a manager at York Hospital, was the first female rescue worker to enter the area hit by the 7.6 magnitude quake.

Her rescue team-mates included Sheila McCabe, from Easingwold, and Ray Gray, from Beverley, who is formerly of Selby.

An advance party of five members of the International Rescue Corps entered Muzaffarabad last Sunday afternoon, only a day after the disaster happened.

On Wednesday, Julie rescued two teenage boys by crawling into a makeshift tunnel under a collapsed religious school where locals said they had heard voices. "I have never experienced it before, in all honesty," she said.

"We always go in and shout hello and you hear nothing. This was just as plain as day. It was almost as if they were sitting right next to me."

But Julie said though the search for survivors has ended, it is vital people support the relief effort for the thousands of people still suffering in the region.

She said: "They still need a lot of help, shelter, food and water. People should really try to dig deep and help with the relief effort now."

A halt in heavy rains today allowed helicopter relief flights to resume across Pakistan's quake zone, but fresh landslides hampered efforts to move supplies by road and officials estimated the death toll could now be more than 54,000.

Updated: 10:28 Monday, October 17, 2005