Iran steps up relief efforts as quakes kill 227
Iran yesterday stepped up relief operations in shattered villages in its northeast after saying rescue operations were completed following a double earthquake which cost 227 lives and injured 1,380 people. “Search and rescue operations have ended and...
Iran yesterday stepped up relief operations in shattered villages in its northeast after saying rescue operations were completed following a double earthquake which cost 227 lives and injured 1,380 people.
An estimated 16,000 people remain homeless by the quakes
“Search and rescue operations have ended and we are now working to ensure survivors’ needs in terms of shelter and food,” Interior Minister Moustafa Mohammad-Najjar told state TV as he announced the casualty toll.
He and other officials said the rubble left by Saturday’s earthquakes hid no more survivors, making further rescue activities unnecessary.
Around half of the 600 villages located in the disaster zonewere damaged, some of them badly, he said.
The first of the earthquakes registered a strong 6.4 on the moment magnitude scale, according to the US Geological Survey which monitors seismic activity worldwide.
The second, almost as strong at 6.3 on the scale, rumbled through just 11 minutes after the first. Many smaller aftershocks followed.
While Tabriz and nearby towns escaped with only relatively minor damage, many outlying villages where buildings are made of more flimsy mud and concrete bricks were decimated.
The Interior Minister said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had given orders for home reconstruction to begin immediately because of the harsh winter that the mountainous region experiences.
The region declared two days of mourning for the lives lost in the disaster.
An estimated 16,000 people remained homeless by the quakes. Iran’s Red Crescent distributed thousands of tents and supplies of food and water to help them through the days ahead, and put up 4,000 emergency shelters in a sporting stadium.
It also said it turned down offers of help from Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore and Germany because Iran was able to cope with the disaster by itself.
Iran’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, yesterday sent his condolences to Mr Ahmadinejad over the earthquakes, Syria’s state news agency Sana reported.