Saturday, Dec 27, 2003
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By Atul Aneja
Manama, Dec. 26. Between 5,000 to 6,000 people were killed and over 30,000 injured in a severe earthquake, which rocked the historic city of Bam in south-east Iran this morning, officials and state media said. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted the Governor General of Kerman province, Mohammad Ali Karimi, as saying that the earthquake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, destroyed nearly 60 per cent of residential areas of the city. Director-General of Public Relations of Iran's Red Crescent, Mehran Nour Bakhsh said water, electricity and telephone communications with the cities of Bam and other neighbouring towns in the area had been cut off. "The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," he added. Reports said the earthquake devastated Bam's medieval fortress, an expansive 2,000-year-old structure, that draws several thousand tourists annually. Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the earthquake took place, declined to pin a precise number on the dead, but quoted officials from Bam as saying that nearly 10,000 people could have lost their lives. About 500 people have been evacuated to hospitals in Kerman, where they are in critical condition, Iranian state television reported, quoting local authorities. A helicopter survey by officials of the city of around 80,000 people showed that the majority of the houses were destroyed, during the quake which struck at around 5:30 a.m. local time. An aftershock of magnitude 5.4 on Richter scale rocked the city two hours later. Iranian television showed pictures of widespread devastation including rows of collapsed or damaged buildings in Bam. Some houses were reduced to rubble and grieving men were embracing each other. Crowds of people had assembled outside hospitals where the victims were being brought in. Authorities in Bam, about 1000 km from Teheran, have sought blood donations. Relief teams had assembled on the main public square of Bam. But rescue and relief efforts were being hampered by traffic jams as relatives from nearby areas were heading towards the stricken city. Authorities have sent numerous rescue workers with helicopters to the area, IRNA reported. Iran has so far not sought any help from the United Nations disaster management team in Tehran or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Officials from some of the international relief organisations were quoted as saying that the Iranian Red Crescent was well equipped to handle emergencies arising out of earthquakes. Russian emergency services, in the meanwhile have sent two plane loads of relief material and in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered his ``sincere condolences to the leadership and people of Iran.'' Iran has had a history of earthquakes and an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 to 7.7 on Richter scale had killed 50,000 people on June 21, 1990, and in June 2002, 500 people had died on account of another quake.
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