Rescuers continue search for quake survivors

More rescue teams were due to arrive in Iran today following a devastating earthquake that left up to 20,000 people dead.

Survivors and rescue teams were struggling in sub zero temperatures to find anyone still alive under the rubble that was the bustling ancient city of Bam.

Official figures said 20,000 people were killed and 30,000 injured when the south-eastern city was hit by the quake measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale at 5.28am local time (1.58am Irish time) yesterday.

But Iranian MP Hasan Khoshrou said that 10,000 had been killed and other officials doubled that figure.

He said people at the scene had told him the devastation was “beyond imagination”.

The government said at least 70% of houses in the city of 80,000 people had been destroyed.

A Turkish TV reporter in Bam said it looked at if the city had been bombed.

Thousands who survived were left homeless and were spending the night in the open in freezing weather. Hardly a building remained upright in the old quarter of Bam.

In one street, only a wall and the trees were standing. People were carried away the injured, while others sat sobbing next to the corpses of their loved ones.

Mohammed Karimi, in his 30s, lost his wife and four-year-old daughter.

“This is the day of resurrection. There is nothing but devastation and debris,” he said as he held his dead daughter in his arms.

“Trucks are hauling bodies to bury them in mass graves.”

President Mohammad Khatami attended an emergency meeting and urged the entire country to help the victims of the quake. He declared three days of mourning for what he called a “national tragedy”.

The government told the UN it needs medicines, tents and generators.

Because hospitals in the area had been destroyed, the government sent transport planes to evacuate the wounded for treatment elsewhere.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said 70% of residential Bam had been destroyed and there was no electricity.

“Our immediate two priorities are dealing with the people who are trapped and transferring the wounded to other areas,” he said.

He said four C-130 Hercules transport planes had ferried wounded out of the area.

Mr Mousavi said setting up tents was a priority because of the cold - night-time temperatures were expected to drop to minus 6 C (21 F) – and the large-scale destruction of buildings.

The governor of Kerman province, Mohammad Ali Karimi, said: “The death toll is very high.

“Many people are buried under the rubble,” Karimi said. “We do not have any precise information. What is certain is that the old structure of the city has been totally destroyed.”

Hardly any buildings in Iran are built to withstand earthquakes, although the country sits on several major fault lines and tremors are frequent.