International rescue workers are searching desperately through the debris for survivors of yesterday's devastating earthquake in the historic Iranian city of Bam. As many as 20,000 people are feared dead with many thousands still thought to be trapped under the rubble.
The international Red Cross has launched an appeal for $12.3 million aims to provide assistance to Iran.
The Irish Government has pledged €1m worth of aid for the victims. The Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, Mr. Tom Kitt T.D., said the assistance would be used to meet immediate humanitarian needs.
He said the next 48 hours would be a critical period and it was essential to respond as quickly as possible to limit further loss of life and to meet humanitarian needs.
The funding will be channelled primarily through the Red Crescent organisation and other humanitarian agencies including the United Nations.
Italy, as current president of the European Union, is coordinating EU aid. UN officials said they were releasing an immediate emergency grant of $90,000 to help Iran handle the aftermath of the quake and had sent experts to help assess the damage.
The world body's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the UN team would also work to mobilise and oversee international assistance.
The immediate need was for medicines, tents, mobile hospitals, electricity generators, water purification equipment and blankets, OCHA official Madeleine Moulin-Azevedo said.
The U.N. children's fund UNICEF said it was sending first aid kits and medical supplies. It called for $350,000 in donations.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry, highly skilled in reacting to frequent natural and man-made disasters, offered rapid-response units of doctors, paramedics and sniffer dog handlers to help find people buried under rubble.
"In accordance with an order from the head of state Emergencies Ministry specialists are preparing to fly to Iran to give help to the injured," said a statement from President Vladimir Putin's press service after a meeting with Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Itar-Tass news agency quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying planes would leave for Iran today with 100 experts for searching collapsed buildings, 10 doctors and search dogs.
Italy is sending a C-130 military transport plane with a sniffer dog unit, fire brigade and search teams.
Agostino Miozzo, the official coordinating EU aid, said France was sending a field hospital and the Czech Republic, one of the 10 countries entering the bloc next year, had also offered help.
"This is the first time EU coordination is taking place for a disaster," Miozzo said. "It's important not to duplicate efforts, for example, to make sure that several countries don't send field hospitals to the exact same place."
In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer offered Tehran help in rescuing earthquake survivors who may be trapped in collapsed buildings and to repair damage.
Turkey, which has plenty of experience in earthquake relief work, sent a plane carrying search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid to Iran. The aid included tents, blankets and medicines.
Japan, another country with quake expertise, said it was dispatching a medical team specialising in disasters and about $230,000 of relief equipment, including tents, generators, blankets and water tanks.
China said it had decided to offer $600,000 worth of emergency aid to Iran.