IRAN: Thirty-eight people died and 200 were injured yesterday when a faulty electrical heater started a blaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers for a major Shia Muslim festival, Iranian state television reported.
Aid workers and emergency services swarmed around the mosque, a witness said.
The interior was blackened and strewn with burnt shoes and clothes.
Tehran's chief of police, Morteza Talaee, confirmed the death toll of 38 at the scene. Many people flocked to the Arg mosque searching for loved ones.
"I have come to look for my daughter but I am scared she is dead," said Zeinab, clad in a black chador.
The students news agency ISNA reported a blast was heard, then tents inside the mosque caught fire. Terrified worshippers trampled others trying to escape, some smashing windows in their desperation to flee the flames.
"I saw some women throw themselves out of a second-floor window. Some died like that, others from smoke inhalation," said one of the mosque guards.
ISNA reported the blaze started in the section set aside for women. Television said 20 of the dead were women.
"My mother and two sisters were inside and I do not know what happened to them," said a girl called Manizheh, sobbing.
Dr Mohammad Sharifmia said many of the burns were caused by the quick-burning acrylic material used to make chadors. He saw many people with lacerations from broken glass.
Others had broken legs after hurling themselves from high windows.
State television put out an appeal for people to give blood.
Shia Muslims are pouring into mosques to commemorate the death of the seventh century Shia martyr Hossein, who was killed on the battlefield of Kerbala in Iraq.
Tents are common props in plays commemorating Hossein's last days. Mosques are also draped with many hangings. - (Reuters)