DEATH TOLL IN SOUTHEASTERN IRAN PUT AT 20.000 AND RISING
KERMAN 27 Dec. (IPS) With news putting the death toll from the Friday morning earthquake that hit the city of Bam, destroying its 2.500 years-old historic citadel, and the authorities in Tehran announcing a three days national mourning, emergency relief assistance from the international community is under way to the stricken region.
"The city looks like a ghost town. There is nothing but ruin and people wandering in dark streets still filled with corpses for relatives, some of them probably under the ruins. The citadel, one of the jewels of Iran is flattened", reported one local journalist joined by Radio Farda, the Persian service of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.
An official associated with the Iranian Red Crescent put the number of dead
at 20.000 and 50.000 wounded, saying the toll might still escalate as many are
still under debris.
However, Mr. Mohammad Ali Karimi, Kerman's Governor told the State-run Television at nigh fall that the toll is estimated at some 6.000 and 20.000 wounded, some of them in critical conditions. "More than 2.000 dead have been already buried and an aerial bridge have been established with Shiraz to take the wounded to hospitals there, as many hospitals in Bam have also been destroyed", he added.
"Hospitals are filled with wounded, doctors and nurses are overwhelmed
and local authorities have not enough resources to cope with the scope of the
tragedy", another journalist reported, expressing "fears" that
nighttime would slow relief coming from Tehran and other major cities, mostly
from Kerman and Shiraz.
"There are people, men and women, children and elderly sitting in the cold street around bonfires to keep them warm. There no electricity and emergency difficult to reach the needy ones’, the journalist added.
By nightfall Friday, little outside relief was seen in Bam, a city of 80,000. 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.
Medical teams and rescue missions specialising in searching under crumbled houses from Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Greece and Switzerland have left for Iran.
The United Nations, responding to call from Iranian authorities, said it has provided a provisory emergency fund of 90.000 US Dollars and Italy, the roving chair country of the 15-25 European Union is coordinating assistance from the Organisation.
The United States also pledged help.
The earthquake, of 6.3 at the Richter Scale, hit Bam at 5.35 in the morning of Friday, surprising the 80.000 inhabitants in their beds, in houses build on fortified earth and bricks, not enough resistant for such strong earth shakes. IRAN EARTHQUAKE 271203