|
|
|
|
|
|
Iran Quake Toll Could Go Up 50,000: Official
 |
|
A family mourns their dead (AFP)
|
KERMAN,
Iran, December 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The death
toll in the earthquake which devastated the Bam region of southeast
Iran could exceed 50,000, a senior provincial official said Tuesday,
December 30.
"The
number of dead could exceed 50,000 because some districts [of Bam] and
some surrounding villages have not been properly searched yet,"
the official in the Kerman disaster zone, asking not to be named, told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"In
some instances, whole families have been wiped out and so there is
nobody to inform the rescue teams" since Friday's quake, he said.
A
U.N. spokesman said Monday that the death toll could to go up and the
real figure may never be known.
"But
whole families have perished and entire neighborhoods have been
flattened, so there has been no-one left to register them as
missing," said Ted Purn.
Purn
said the focus of the operation was now more on digging up dead bodies
and burying them rather than looking for survivors.
"Yesterday,
we heard they found three people alive. But this is now more of a
recovery rather than a rescue effort," he added.
Iranian
local officials Monday, December 29, put
the number of casualties from the tragic earthquake at
about 30,000.
A
total of 28,000 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the
killer tremor, state radio reported Tuesday quoting local officials.
Only
2,000 people have been pulled out alive following the quake which
measured 6.7 on the Richter scale and destroyed 70 percent of the
historical city of Bam.
Bam's
ancient citadel, a world architectural heritage site, was leveled by
the quake.
President
Mohammad Khatami promised to rebuild the town in two years, Iran radio
reported.
"The
town of Bam must reappear on the map of Iran," Khatami said
during a meeting with members of his government, local officials in
the quake-hit area and military at Bam airport.
"The
town will be reconstructed in two years," he added. "We must
talk of the living, and try to reconstruct the affected areas,"
Khatami said.
U.S.
Doctors Arrive
 |
|
Hopes to find any survivors are fading
|
Meanwhile,
80 U.S. doctors and rescue workers, flown in from a U.S. air base in
the region, arrived Monday in Kerman and were headed by road for Bam,
a local government official told AFP.
On
Sunday, the first U.S. military flight to Iran since the hostage
crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran ended in 1981 carried
emergency aid to the population of Bam.
The
U.S. Air Force said more flights would follow.
The
United States said Monday it was ready to provide more aid and
explained why it ignored two decades of suspicion to help its
"axis of evil" foe.
U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage placed a rare call by a
senior U.S. official to Iran Friday night, U.S. time, when the full
extent of the deadly earthquake at Bam was becoming clear.
Mohammad
Zarif, Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations, was in Tehran at the
time, and telephoned Armitage back shortly afterwards to accept his
offer of aid, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Armitage
said the earthquake was "a humanitarian tragedy that transcended
political considerations and called for the support of the United
States, and we were offering that support," Ereli said
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
