TEHRAN,
December 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A shattering quake
which rocked the southeastern Iranian city of Bam Friday, December 26,
claimed the lives of at least 4,000, people and left more than 30,000
others wounded, according to the state-run television.
"Unfortunately,
4,000 of our compatriots were killed in Bam and at least 30,000 others
were injured," the broadcast said, announcing a three-day period
of mourning in Kerman province, home to the devastated city.
State
media and authorities have aired urgent appeals for blood donations,
blankets, food and clothes to help the victims of the quake, measuring
6.3 at the Richter Scale, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
television broadcast footage from Tehran hospitals, crowded with
hundreds of Iranians volunteering to give blood to help the thousands
of injured.
Kerman
province Governor Mohamed Ali Karimi had told Iranian radio earlier:
"We have no exact knowledge of the scale of the damage and the
deaths, but the damage is very widespread and the number of victims is
very high."
He
stressed that the only sure thing was that "the historic quarter
of Bam has been completely destroyed and many of our countrymen are in
the ruins."
The
fort city of Bam, situated about 1000 kilometers south-east from the
capital Tehran, is renowned for its 2,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam,
before the temblor the world's largest mud-brick structure.
Around
two thirds of homes in the fort of Bam and the surrounding villages
were entirely or partially destroyed in the pre-dawn quake, Karimi
said.
An
AFP correspondent on the scene saw dozens of bodies in the streets of
the city, which is almost made entirely built of mud brick
ill-equipped to withstand a big quake.
Funerals
have already been held for 500 of the dead in accordance with the
Islamic requirement for a swift burial, state television reported.
Another
400 people, most of whom are seriously injured, have been evacuated to
hospitals across the region, it added.
Bereaved
residents wandered the streets pleading for the authorities to speed
up rescue efforts.
"Seventeen
of my relatives are buried under the ruins of my home, they've got to
get a move on or all of them will die," said one, who gave his
name only as Ali, as he attempted to shift the rubble with a spade.
Telephone
and radio communications with the city, as well as the towns of Giroft
and Kohnuj, were cut off following the quake.
The
government has set up a crisis center in Kerman and dispatched five
helicopters and two huge C-130 transport planes to the quake site, the
official IRNA news agency quoted deputy provincial governor Hossein
Marachi as saying.
Neighboring
provinces have also been called upon to provide aid, rescue equipment,
blankets and medicines, he said.
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A video image from IRIB Iranian Television shows a street scene in Bam
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The
Iranian authorities have urged the population not to leave the
disaster zone unless seeking urgent medical assistance, public radio
reported.
The
Strasbourg Observatory in France said the quake was the most powerful
in the region since 1998.
Quakes
are very frequent in Iran. Since 1991 nearly 1,000 tremors have
claimed some 17,600 lives and injured 53,000 people, according to
official figures.
On
August 27, a tremor of 5.7 jolted the Bam area, but caused no
casualties.
The
last major quake came in June, 2002, when a tremor of 6.3 hit
northwestern Iran, killing 235 people and wounding more than 1,300.
In
June 1990, 40,000 were killed in Gilan and Zanjan provinces, in a
massive tremor measuring 7.7.
International
Help
Iran
appealed for international aid, particularly sniffer dogs and
equipment to search for bodies amid the rubble.
"We
need sniffer dogs and detection equipment, blankets, medicines, food,
but also prefabricated houses because winter is coming very
quickly," said a statement from the interior ministry.
The
ministry's department responsible for natural disasters asked Iranian
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to ask international organizations and
governments for aid.
European
countries immediately offered assistance and Germany, Belgium and
Greece were among the first to respond.
In
a letter to Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder said his country would "make every effort
within the limit of its possibilities to place at Iran's disposition
all necessary humanitarian aid."
Greece
said it would send 250,000 euros in aid and was preparing teams of
rescuers to help Iran.
"A
team of 25 men is ready to leave," said Andreas Loverdos,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
"We
are awaiting the green light from the Iranian government on what sort
of materials we should send them."
Belgian
Foreign Minister Louis Michel said his officials already had been on
contact with Iranian authorities to establish what assistance was
needed.
Michel
summoned a crisis group called B-fast, a specialized unit to deal with
crises abroad.
The
cell was set up after the Turkish earthquakes that took the lives of
more than 20,000 people in 1999.
Meanwhile,
two experts from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) will leave Switzerland later in the day.
Four
more experts were due to fly out on Saturday, December 27, OCHA
spokeswoman Madeleine Moulin said.
"In
response to the earthquake in Iran, the U.N. released an emergency
grant of 90,000 dollars and sent a team of experts to assess the
damage, and to mobilize and coordinate international assistance,"
she told AFP.
