Stench of death fills city

IRAN’S earthquake-devastated city of Bam was filled with the stench of death yesterday as top foreign rescuers warned that hopes were fading for any more survivors from a disaster that killed more than 20,000 people.

From the United States to China, Britain to Australia, nations rushed to respond to Iran's appeals and sent rescue workers, doctors, tents and cash to help deal with what appeared to be the world's most lethal earthquake in at least 10 years.

"It is my impression, with the scale of the disaster, that the toll is more than 20,000," Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said live on state television yesterday.