Villages destroyed as earthquake kills 420

A POWERFUL earthquake hit a mountainous region of south-east Iran yesterday, killing at least 420 people, injuring hundreds and destroying villages, officials said.

The tremor, with a magnitude of 6.4, centred on the town of Zarand, about 440 miles south-east of Tehran and revived painful memories of the devastating quake 14 months ago in the nearby desert city of Bam that killed 31,000 people.

Distraught villagers carried dead bodies wrapped in bloodied blankets and bedsheets and dug with their bare hands in search of friends and relatives.

“It’s completely devastated, there’s almost nothing left of the buildings,” Kari Egge, UNICEF representative in Iran, said from Douhan village, about 12.5 miles from Zarand.

“There are 12 other villages which are also affected, one of which is not accessible due to a blocked road. There are still people unaccounted for,” she said.

Major towns and cities in the area however, appeared to have escaped heavy damage, officials said. This meant the toll would not be as high as the many thousands killed in some quakes in Iran in the past.

“The toll now stands at 377 dead and more than 1,000 injured,” Ali Komsari, a spokesman for the Kerman provincial governor’s office, said.

Massoud Ghadipasha, head of the Kerman province forensic medical department, said 384 burial permits had already been issued and another 18 bodies had yet to be identified. Another local official said at least 420 had been killed.

Following Islamic tradition, villagers immediately began burying their dead.

Ms Egge said survivors would need to move to nearby towns and villages to find shelter before nightfall.

“It’s 1,800 metres here. It’s cold and has been raining. There’s no shelter,” she said, adding the UN children’s agency had calculated around 80,000 people had been affected by the quake.

Television pictures showed groups of villagers huddled together in the rain, striking their heads and chests in grief. Hospitals in Zarand were full to capacity.

Some of the injured were ferried by train to nearby Kerman where bandaged and crying children clutching bags of serum stood at the railway station.

The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said relief teams from the Iranian Red Crescent were distributing food, tents and blankets.

Mostafa Mohaghegh of the federation, who spoke with Iranian Red Crescent officials, said: “We were told there is no need for international rescue teams. Everything is under control, this size is manageable.”