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Thousands Killed in Quake in Bam, Iran
26 minutes ago
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
KERMAN, Iran - Entire blocks of buildings lay crushed and survivors lined up blanket-wrapped bodies in the street after a devastating earthquake leveled nearly three-quarters of the Iranian city of Bam on Friday, killing at least 5,000 people and injuring 30,000 others.
The quake also destroyed much of Bam's historic landmark _ a giant medieval fortress complex of towers, domes and walls, all made of mud-brick, overlooking a walled Old City, parts of which date back 2,000 years. Television images showed the onetime highest part of the fort crumbled like a sand castle down the side of the hill, though some walls still stood.
"The disaster is far too huge for us to meet all of our needs," President Mohammad Khatami said. "However, all the institutions have been mobilized."
The government asked for international assistance _ particularly search and rescue teams, with many victims still thought buried in the ruins. President Bush promised to send aid, as did numerous European nations.
By nightfall Friday, little outside relief was seen in Bam, a city of 80,000 people in southeastern Iran. With temperatures dropping to 21 degrees, survivors built bonfires in the rubble-strewn streets to keep warm, many shivering in their nightclothes, they only clothes they had since the pre-dawn quake.
With hospitals in the area destroyed, military transport planes had to evacuate many wounded for treatment elsewhere. At least four C-130s had ferried out injured so far, Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari told Iranian television, which put the number of injured at 30,000.
Mohammed Ali Karimi, the governor of Kerman province, said the preliminary estimate of the death toll was 5,000 to 6,000, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, though lower-level officials said the number could go as high as 12,000.
Karimi's deputy said it was impossible for now to get an accurate count. "Many people still are buried under the rubble and rescue operations are going slowly because of darkness," deputy governor Mohammad Farshad said.
At the city's only cemetery, a crowd of about 1,000 people wailed and beat their chests and heads over some 500 corpses that lay on the ground as a bulldozen dug a trench for a mass grave.
"This is the Apocalypse. There is nothing but devastation and debris," Mohammed Karimi, in his 30s, said at the cemetery, where he had brought the bodies of his wife and 4-year-old daughter.
"Last night before she went to sleep she made me a drawing and kissed me four times," he said of his daughter, Nazenine, whom he held in his arms. "When I asked, 'Why four kisses?' she said, 'Maybe I won't see you again, Papa,'" Karimi told an AP photographer, as tears streamed down his face.
The quake struck at 5:28 a.m., while many were asleep. IRNA put the maginitude at 6.3; the U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.5. Survivors were panicked throughout the day by aftershocks, including one that registered a magnitude of 5.3, according to the geophysics institute of Tehran University.
The interior minister said 70 percent of residential Bam had been destroyed, and there was no electricity, water or telephone lines. Iran's Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, said rescue and relief teams had been sent to Bam from numerous provinces, including Tehran.
"Our immediate two priorities are dealing with the people who are trapped and transferring the wounded to other areas," Lari said from Kerman province. "Our biggest difficulty so far is rescuing people because there is no electricity and people are doing what they can with flashlights," he said.
Iranian television showed entire neighborhoods collapsed. On one street, only a wall and the trees were standing. People carried away injured, while others sat sobbing next to the blanket-covered corpses of their loved ones. One man held his head in his hands and wailed.
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26 minutes ago
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
KERMAN, Iran - Entire blocks of buildings lay crushed and survivors lined up blanket-wrapped bodies in the street after a devastating earthquake leveled nearly three-quarters of the Iranian city of Bam on Friday, killing at least 5,000 people and injuring 30,000 others.
The quake also destroyed much of Bam's historic landmark _ a giant medieval fortress complex of towers, domes and walls, all made of mud-brick, overlooking a walled Old City, parts of which date back 2,000 years. Television images showed the onetime highest part of the fort crumbled like a sand castle down the side of the hill, though some walls still stood.
"The disaster is far too huge for us to meet all of our needs," President Mohammad Khatami said. "However, all the institutions have been mobilized."
The government asked for international assistance _ particularly search and rescue teams, with many victims still thought buried in the ruins. President Bush promised to send aid, as did numerous European nations.
By nightfall Friday, little outside relief was seen in Bam, a city of 80,000 people in southeastern Iran. With temperatures dropping to 21 degrees, survivors built bonfires in the rubble-strewn streets to keep warm, many shivering in their nightclothes, they only clothes they had since the pre-dawn quake.
With hospitals in the area destroyed, military transport planes had to evacuate many wounded for treatment elsewhere. At least four C-130s had ferried out injured so far, Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari told Iranian television, which put the number of injured at 30,000.
Mohammed Ali Karimi, the governor of Kerman province, said the preliminary estimate of the death toll was 5,000 to 6,000, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, though lower-level officials said the number could go as high as 12,000.
Karimi's deputy said it was impossible for now to get an accurate count. "Many people still are buried under the rubble and rescue operations are going slowly because of darkness," deputy governor Mohammad Farshad said.
At the city's only cemetery, a crowd of about 1,000 people wailed and beat their chests and heads over some 500 corpses that lay on the ground as a bulldozen dug a trench for a mass grave.
"This is the Apocalypse. There is nothing but devastation and debris," Mohammed Karimi, in his 30s, said at the cemetery, where he had brought the bodies of his wife and 4-year-old daughter.
"Last night before she went to sleep she made me a drawing and kissed me four times," he said of his daughter, Nazenine, whom he held in his arms. "When I asked, 'Why four kisses?' she said, 'Maybe I won't see you again, Papa,'" Karimi told an AP photographer, as tears streamed down his face.
The quake struck at 5:28 a.m., while many were asleep. IRNA put the maginitude at 6.3; the U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.5. Survivors were panicked throughout the day by aftershocks, including one that registered a magnitude of 5.3, according to the geophysics institute of Tehran University.
The interior minister said 70 percent of residential Bam had been destroyed, and there was no electricity, water or telephone lines. Iran's Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, said rescue and relief teams had been sent to Bam from numerous provinces, including Tehran.
"Our immediate two priorities are dealing with the people who are trapped and transferring the wounded to other areas," Lari said from Kerman province. "Our biggest difficulty so far is rescuing people because there is no electricity and people are doing what they can with flashlights," he said.
Iranian television showed entire neighborhoods collapsed. On one street, only a wall and the trees were standing. People carried away injured, while others sat sobbing next to the blanket-covered corpses of their loved ones. One man held his head in his hands and wailed.
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