OVERCROWDED HOSPITALS in northwest Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims yesterday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people.
Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday’s quakes for fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness said.
“I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed and all their livestock killed,” Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said. “People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread.”
The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz.
Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by yesterday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated.
Abbas Falahi, member of parliament for Ahar and Harees, said people in some villages were still “in dire need of food and drinking water”.
The US Geological Survey measured Saturday’s first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran’s oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.
More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji’i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 per cent damage, and 20 villages were destroyed, he said. – (Reuters)