India Pakistan war 'would spark Armageddon with 125m deaths and global starvation'
Hundreds of millions could die 'immediately' and billions more would be hit by knock-on effects on Earth's atmosphere if nuclear war broke out between India and Pakistan, scientists said
More than 100 million people could die if India and Pakistan began a devastating nuclear war, experts have warned.
An academic journal published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists found tens of millions of people would perish "immediately" should tensions between the two countries result in nuclear weapons being used - while huge plumes of dust released into the Earth's atmosphere could trigger famines that would affect "billions" around the world. It comes after India launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones into Pakistan early on Wednesday, killing at least 26 people. Pakistan described the strikes as an "act of war", and claimed it shot down several Indian fighter jets in retaliation.
Tensions have soared between the nuclear-armed neighbours over a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, which India says was carried out by terror groups based in Pakistan.
Pakistan and India are estimated to have just under 400 nuclear weapons between them - and scientists say the impacts of them ever being used would stretch far beyond South Asia.
In 2019, researchers from Department of Environmental Sciences at the US Rutgers University found that, after killing around 125million in the initial nuclear blasts, the huge fires could pump around 16million to 36million tons of soot into the upper atmosphere, which would spread around the world within only a few weeks.
This thick soot would reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface by around 20% to 35%, causing the Earth to cool to two to five degrees.
A lack of sunlight and a reduction in the amount of precipitation would also have wider knock-on effects in terms of agriculture, potentially causing mass famines that would impact billions of people.
Nuclear fallout would also spread radioactive poisoning across a wide area. The amount of smoke in Earth's atmosphere means it would take as long as a decade for things to return to normal, the scientists warned.
Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University who co-authored the study, said at the time: 'Nine countries have nuclear weapons, but Pakistan and India are the only ones rapidly increasing their arsenals.
'Because of the continuing unrest between these two nuclear-armed countries, particularly over Kashmir, it is important to understand the consequences of a nuclear war.' He added: 'Such a war would threaten not only the locations where bombs might be targeted but the entire world.'
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