IRAN's appeal for international assistance yesterday stimulated offers from around the world as rescuers sifted through rubble for survivors of an earthquake that killed 2,400 people.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that Saturday's quake, which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, had flattened 200 villages in the northeastern province of Khorasan, the country's richest and most fertile region.
Most of the devastation occurred around the towns of Qaen and Birjand, but the Iranian interior ministry reported "major damage" across the border in the western Afghan province of Herat.
Hamid Mahalati, head of the Red Crescent crisis team in Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan province and Iran's second largest city, with a population of about two million, said 2,000 people had died in Qaen. He added that 394 people were killed in Birjand and two in Khaf, near the border with Afghanistan.
Iranian officials appealed to the international community, the public and Iranians abroad to provide aid to cope with the disaster which caused damage worth about $150 million.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was preparing to send 50 tonnes of food, 9,000 tents, 6,000 items of clothing and 1,000 blankets. France said it had sent a plane with 39 tonnes of equipment to Mashhad, and Saudi Arabia will send two planes of supplies.
Aid was also being sent by Germany, despite its diplomatic row with Tehran over a German court ruling in April that held Iran's leadership responsible for the assassination of Iranian Kurd opposition figures in Berlin.
Even the US, Iran's archenemy, was prepared to provide aid through international relief agencies. If Washington receives a request from a third party: "We will provide contributions through an NGO [nongovernmental organisation] such as the Red Cross or the Red Crescent," White House spokeswoman, Ms Mary Ellen Glynn, said.
The Swiss government said a specialist nine strong team of rescuers, with three sniffer dogs, was already at the scene.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference called on member states to offer aid to Iran. Syria, Qatar, China, Pakistan and Bahrain have also sent messages of condolence, while Kuwait and Bahrain offered aid.
The Iranian foreign ministry said the aid would be coordinated through Mashhad. The quake's epicentre was about 370 km (230 miles) south of the city.
Eight thousand tents were distributed to the homeless and three days of mourning have been declared by Qaen authorities.