Hope fades for Iran quake survivors

HOPES of finding more earthquake survivors in Iran’s ancient city of Bam faded yesterday as the sharp, foul smell of death permeated the pulverised rubble, confirming that the mud-brick houses became instant tombs for more than 20,000 people.

Rescue workers from around the world joined Iranians in searching through powdery debris that left little room for air pockets allowing people to survive while awaiting help.

More than 20,000 bodies have been retrieved since last Friday's 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the city and surrounding region in southeast Iran, a local government spokesman said.

Still, the interior minister said the search would continue.

"We have not lost hope for survivors and our priority remains to find them," Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said in Bam yesterday.

Friday's quake struck shortly before sunrise when most people were still sleeping.

Experts say that people can survive up to 72 hours, and sometimes even longer, trapped in the rubble if they have enough air to breathe. Bam will have passed the 72-hour mark by sunrise today.

At least 45 planes from other countries landed in Iran on Saturday and yesterday, bringing foreign rescue teams, search dogs, medical teams and supplies.

US military C-130 cargo planes were among them, despite the long-severed diplomatic relations and US President George W Bush's characterisation of Iran as part of "the axis of evil".

"We have not lost hope for survivors, and our priority remains to find them," Mr Lari said.

"Up to 15,000 bodies have been recovered and buried," Mr Lari told reporters in Bam.

"Definitely, the death toll surpasses 20,000."

Traffic clogged the roads leading in and out of Bam, 630 miles southeast of Tehran, the Iranian capital.

Mostafa Biderani and his wife, Zahra Nazari, wept in front of a destroyed police station in the centre of Bam, slapping their faces and beating their chests in an Islamic expression of grief.

"I pulled my son out of the rubble this morning," said Mr Biderani, who drove from Isfahan, about 470 miles northwest of Bam "in hope of finding my son alive".

"But all my hopes were dashed when I saw the police station had collapsed. I pulled out my son with my bare hands."