20,000 Killed, 50,000 Injured In Iran Quake

The Kerman province governor’s office said that the death toll of the devastating quake rose to20 ,000, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

A government official confirmed the news, telling Reuters that “rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than20 ,000”.

While Al-Jazeera correspondent said on air that30 , 000people could have lost their lives and50 , 000escaped with injuries.

State television had earlier said4 , 000people had died and that another 30 , 000were injured.

"Unfortunately, 4 , 000of our compatriots were killed in Bam and at least30 , 000others were injured," the broadcast said, announcing a three-day period of mourning in Kerman province, home to the devastated city.

State media and authorities have aired urgent appeals for blood donations, blankets, food and clothes to help the victims of the quake, measuring 6 . 3at the Richter Scale.

The television broadcast footage from Tehran hospitals, crowded with hundreds of Iranians volunteering to give blood to help the thousands of injured.

The fort city of Bam, situated about 1000 kilometers south-east from the capital Tehran, is renowned for its2 ,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam, before the temblor the world’s largest mud-brick structure.

Around two thirds of homes in the fort of Bam and the surrounding villages were entirely or partially destroyed in the pre-dawn quake, Karem governor Mohammad Ali Karimi said.

An AFP correspondent on the scene saw dozens of bodies in the streets of the city, which is almost made entirely built of mud brick ill-equipped to withstand a big quake.

Under Ruins
Funerals have already been held for 500 of the dead in accordance with the Islamic requirement for a swift burial, state television reported.

Bereaved residents wandered the streets pleading for the authorities to speed up rescue efforts.

"Seventeen of my relatives are buried under the ruins of my home, they’ve got to get a move on or all of them will die," said one, who gave his name only as Ali, as he attempted to shift the rubble with a spade.

Telephone and radio communications with the city, as well as the towns of Giroft and Kohnuj, were cut off following the quake.

The government has set up a crisis center in Kerman and dispatched five helicopters and two huge C- 130transport planes to the quake site, the official IRNA news agency quoted deputy provincial governor Hossein Marachi as saying.

Neighboring provinces have also been called upon to provide aid, rescue equipment, blankets and medicines, he said.

The Iranian authorities have urged the population not to leave the disaster zone unless seeking urgent medical assistance, public radio reported.

The Strasbourg Observatory in France said the quake was the most powerful in the region since1998 .

Quakes are very frequent in Iran. Since 1991 nearly1 , 000tremors have claimed some17 , 600lives and injured53 , 000people, according to official figures.

On August27 , a tremor of5 . 7jolted the Bam area, but caused no casualties.

The last major quake came in June,2002 , when a tremor of6 . 3hit northwestern Iran, killing 235 people and wounding more than1 ,300.

In June1990 ,40 , 000were killed in Gilan and Zanjan provinces, in a massive tremor measuring7 .7.

International Help
Iran appealed for international aid, particularly sniffer dogs and equipment to search for bodies amid the rubble.

"We need sniffer dogs and detection equipment, blankets, medicines, food, but also prefabricated houses because winter is coming very quickly," said a statement from the interior ministry.

The ministry’s department responsible for natural disasters asked Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to ask international organizations and governments for aid.

European countries immediately offered assistance and Germany, Belgium and Greece were among the first to respond.

In a letter to President Khatami, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said his country would "make every effort within the limit of its possibilities to place at Iran’s disposition all necessary humanitarian aid."

Greece said it would send250 , 000euros in aid and was preparing teams of rescuers to help Iran.

"A team of 25 men is ready to leave," said Andreas Loverdos, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

"We are awaiting the green light from the Iranian government on what sort of materials we should send them."

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said his officials already had been on contact with Iranian authorities to establish what assistance was needed.

Michel summoned a crisis group called B-fast, a specialized unit to deal with crises abroad.

The cell was set up after the Turkish earthquakes that took the lives of more than20 , 000people in1999 .

Meanwhile, two experts from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will leave Switzerland later in the day.

Four more experts were due to fly out on Saturday, December27 , OCHA spokeswoman Madeleine Moulin said.

"In response to the earthquake in Iran, the U.N. released an emergency grant of90 , 000dollars and sent a team of experts to assess the damage, and to mobilize and coordinate international assistance," she told AFP.