ISLAMABAD: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Tuesday that 17 of the country`s 157 districts were `extremely vulnerable` to natural disasters.

This was stated by Ahmed Kamal, a member of NDMA`s disaster risk reduction team at a seminar on climate change anditsconsequences organised by the German Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation.

Another 28 districts, he said, had a high proneness to disaster, adding that seven of the extremely vulnerable districts were in Azad Kashmir, six in Sindh and four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The multiple hazards to which the country is exposed to include earthquake, flood, drought, avalanche, landslide and cyclone.

The higher level of disaster and risk faced by the districts is due to their geographical location, variable climate, topography, envi-ronmental degradation and other socio-economic conditions.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy of 2013 says development of a database is one of its top priorities.

Meanwhile, as rescue agencies speed up their work in earthquake-hit areas, more than 2,500 volunteers of Al Khidmat Foundation Pakistan have rescued 1,500 affected people.

The foundation said in a statement that most of the rescue operations were conducted in Peshawar, Chitral, L ower Dir, Upper Dir, Bannu and Swat, adding that they had sent relief goods, including 2,000 tents, 5,000 tarpaulins and 10,000 food packs to the affected areas.

`The rescue and relief operation is aided by 60 ambulances to transport the injured to medical facilities,` said Mohammad Abdul Shakoor, the president of the foundation. `Our basic idea is to penetrate deep into the quake-hit areas to provide rescue and relief to the remote parts.