|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 28 December 2003 |
 |
|
 |
World | Today's Top Story |  |
| News Business Features
|
20,000 die in huge Iran quake BAM, Iran, Saturday (Reuters) International rescue teams were flying into Iran on Saturday to join a frantic search for survivors from an earthquake that devastated the ancient Silk Road city of Bam, killing at least 20,000 people. U.S. President George W. Bush, who once branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction, and other world leaders rushed to offer whatever help they could to the Islamic Republic. The pre-dawn quake on Friday also injured about 30,000 people, state television reported as rescuers tore at rubble for anyone buried alive. The quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck when many people were still asleep in their homes. About 70 per cent of Bam, a popular tourist spot some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran with an historic citadel and other centuries-old buildings, was levelled. Reuters witnesses in Bam said hundreds of corpses were bundled into trucks and the back seats of cars. Distraught relatives wailed next to bodies wrapped in blankets. Many residents were feared trapped under the rubble and the city in Iran's Kerman province was without water, power or fuel as night temperatures headed below freezing. Some people in the Bam area, which has a population of 200,000, accused the government of doing nothing to help them. The Interior Ministry confirmed on Saturday that the death toll now stood at 20,000, state television reported. Survivors lit fires to stay warm in the open amid the mass of flattened mud-brick houses. Some, using their bare hands, joined search teams tearing at rubble. "I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," said Maryam, 17. One grief-stricken old woman, her face covered with dirt, just kept saying: "My child, my child." Washington has no official ties with Tehran, but Bush said in a statement: "We stand ready to help the people of Iran." A spokesman for Bush said Washington would be offering humanitarian aid, and a U.S. official said the State Department would be announcing an aid package soon. The United Nations, European Union countries, Russia, China, Poland, Japan, Turkey and others also heeded Iran's appeals for help from the international community. They pledged doctors, medical supplies, financial aid, and rescuers with sniffer dogs and equipment to locate survivors. A 60-strong British rescue team with sniffer dogs, special cameras and listening devices left London on Friday night and was due to arrive in Kerman, near Bam, early on Saturday. "We need help, otherwise we will be pulling corpses, not the injured, out of the rubble," Brigadier Mohammadi, commander of the army in southeast Iran, told state television. Rubble-strewn pavements were lined with injured, some on intravenous drips. State media said two hospitals had collapsed, crushing many of the staff, and remaining hospitals were full. The injured were being ferried to neighbouring towns. Mechanised diggers hollowed out trenches where the dead were hastily buried without rites. A large part of the ancient citadel was destroyed, Kerman province governor Mohammad Ali Karimi said. Dating back 2,000 years, it had sprawling fortifications, towers, buildings, stables and a mosque. It was the city's main tourist attraction. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
