Quake toll may hit 50,000: more aid needed
"We are expecting the death toll to reach around 50,000," a senior Interior Ministry official said, sharply raising the projected tally from the nearly 30,000 already buried.
Some hungry children may have died in the freezing nights tormenting tens of thousands forced to sleep in the open at Bam, putting a premium on blankets, clothing and medicines.
"If we consider that, on average, five people lived in each house we can say the death toll will reach 50,000," the Interior Ministry official said. Another senior official confirmed the forecast, though President Mohammad Khatami called it premature.
"We cannot say right now what the exact death toll is. We should wait until the rescue work and all the activities in Bam are finished," Khatami told reporters in nearby Kerman, saying that the present death toll was "definitely not 50,000".
That figure could make the earthquake around the ancient Silk Road city the most lethal since one at Tangshan in China that killed at least five times as many in 1976.
The death toll at Bam, 1,000 km southeast of Tehran, may surpass that in northwestern Iran in 1990 and be double that of quakes in Armenia in 1988 and Gujarat in 2001.
Friday's tremor, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck just before dawn, killing entire families as they slept.
The Interior Ministry official said 80% of Bam's mud-brick buildings had been flattened and that many outlying villages had not yet been fully searched. Not only did bricks not leave the air pockets typical of modern concrete structures but their dust would have suffocated survivors, experts said.
As state television reported 28,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves, relief agencies were calling for warm clothing and blankets to ward off the bitter overnight frost.
"Two children from my family, 12 and 13 years old, survived the earthquake, but they died from exposure while out on the street sometime on Friday night," one middle-aged woman said.
"Half my family is still under the debris. We buried 14 family members yesterday," Marzieh added. "Writers and poets should try to find a word bigger than 'disaster'."
State television broadcast harrowing scenes from hospitals around the country. One girl, aged about six, lay in bed with tubes attached to her nose and a bandage covering her forehead.
"I want to show my dolls to my mummy and tell her what has happened to us. But I can't find my mummy," she said.
In Bam, armies of street cleaners using brooms, shovels and wheelbarrows began to sweep up debris in near deserted streets.
The scale of the disaster, which, according to UN estimates, damaged 90% of Bam's buildings, prompted swift pledges of aid, even from nations with poor ties with the Islamic Republic.
Washington, which has labelled Tehran as part of an "axis of evil" and is in turn referred to as the "Great Satan" by hard-liners in Iran, has sent eight planeloads of medical and humanitarian supplies as well as several dozen relief experts.
US military planes, which began arriving at the weekend, were the first to land in Iran since the 1981 hostage crisis.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was open to restoring dialogue. But Khatami played down the US aid.
"This has got nothing to do with political issues," he said. "The problems in Iran-US relations are rooted in history."
Six of Iran's Arab Gulf neighbours late on Monday pledged $400 million to help Tehran with relief and rebuilding.
Aid workers said more was needed to assist some 100,000 people left homeless and thousands more injured in the quake.
"There are still gaps to be filled," said Rob MacGillivray, emergency adviser for Save The Children in Bam.
Healthcare was a priority, he said. Bam's two main hospitals were destroyed. Blankets, children's clothes, soap, cooking sets and large cans for drinking water were also badly needed.
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