A pre-dawn earthquake razed much of the ancient city of Bam in Iran yesterday, killing more than 20,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, government officials said.
About 70 per cent of the buildings in the historic city, a popular tourist destination 1,000 km southeast of the capital, Tehran, had collapsed and many residents were trapped under the rubble, state television said.
"Rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than 20,000," a senior government official said last night.
The quake at about 5:30 a.m. (0200 GMT) measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Officials said around 50,000 people were injured in and around the city, which, with its environs, had a population of some 200,000 people.
Bam was without water, electricity or gas as night fell and temperatures headed below freezing. Residents set fires to stay warm and made torches from palm branches for light as they dug with bare hands for survivors.
State media said two hospitals had collapsed, crushing many of the staff, and the remaining hospitals were full. The injured were being ferried to neighbouring towns.
Distraught relatives wept next to shrouded corpses. Hundreds of bodies were bundled into trucks. Mechanised diggers hollowed out trenches where the dead were buried quickly without rites.
Angry people accused the government of doing nothing to help them and said they were still without tents, water or fuel.
Witnesses said the road to Bam was choked with ambulances and people desperate to find family members.
Houses in the date-growing area are traditionally made from mud-brick, making them vulnerable to earthquakes.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran needed search dogs, blankets and medicines from the world community.
Russia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, the United States and other states were sending help, including doctors, medical supplies and rescuers with sniffer dogs and special equipment to locate survivors buried beneath rubble.
A large part of the ancient citadel was destroyed, Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province, where Bam is located, said. Dating back 2,000 years, it had fortifications, towers, buildings, stables and a mosque.
Bam is on the old Silk Road route between China and Europe used by merchants and travellers for centuries. It is a tourist destination, with inns, a gymnasium, a theological school and bazaars.
The earthquake, a regular occurrence in a country crossed by major faultlines, struck when most residents were asleep.
In June last year, a tremor measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit northern Iran, killing at least 229 people and injuring more than 1,000.
Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran. Tehran was hit by a quake of about seven on the Richter scale in 1830.
President Mohammed Khatami, who chaired an emergency meeting, declared three days of mourning. He ordered the formation of a crisis centre and dispatched the interior and transport ministers to the area to assess the needs of survivors.
The first 48 hours would be critical, he said. Iran needed equipment to find those trapped alive and also heavy machinery to lift the rubble.
The Interior Minister, Mr Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, said the two priorities were dealing with people trapped under collapsed buildings and transferring the injured to other areas. Four transport planes had already carried some of the injured out of the area, he told Iranian television.
He said it was also imperative to set up tents for the homeless. Night-time temperatures were expected to drop to minus 6 degrees.
Government ministries set up bank accounts for people to donate funds, and launched appeals for tinned food, warm clothing and blankets.
- (Reuters)