Fears Iranian death toll could reach 40,000

Rescuers tonight began searching for survivors of the Iranian earthquake as officials predicted the death toll could reach 40,000.

Emergency workers reported seeing piles of bodies littering the streets as they arrived in the ancient city of Bam to start the recovery operation.

The quake, which registered 6.3 on the Richter scale, flattened an estimated 80% of the south-east Iranian city, killing tens of thousands and leaving many others homeless or trapped under rubble.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said: “There is not a standing building in the city.

"Bam has turned into a wasteland.”

He estimated 20,000 died in the quake which struck before dawn on Friday.

But Akbar Alavi, the mayor of Kerman city, the local provincial capital, said it could reach double that figure.

The leader of a relief team, Ahmad Najafi, supported the 40,000 estimate, saying that in one street alone in Bam today, 200 bodies had been extracted from the rubble in one hour’s work.

Local workers dug with shovels and their bare hands to extricate bodies and possible survivors from the remains of buildings.

Survivors were often seen slapping their own faces and beating their chests in an Islamic ritual of mourning.

The Iranian government appealed for international help and waived visas for foreign relief workers.

Thousands of tourists visited Bam each year, most to see its 2,000 year old citadel – a medieval fortress made of mud-brick, which was almost entirely destroyed in the quake.