SARBAGH, Iran, 23 February 2005 — A powerful earthquake flattened villages in the mountains of central Iran yesterday, killing at least 420 people and injuring hundreds. Under a cold rain, survivors frantically searched for loved ones in collapsed mud-brick homes.

The magnitude-6.4 quake struck the mountainous region at 5.55 a.m., damaging at least 40 villages with a population of some 30,000 people, officials said. Survivors slapped their faces in grief as they sat next to bodies of loved ones, wrapped in blankets.

“Where have you gone. I had a lot of plans for you,” Hossein Golestani sang softly to his lifeless 7-year-old daughter, held in his arms. Another dead daughter, an eight-year-old, lay beside him.

Heavy rains hampered rescue efforts, and as night fell and temperatures got colder, snow began to fall in some villages. Survivors huddled around fires to keep warm, covering themselves with blankets and sipping soup.

Emergency officials tried to evacuate survivors to nearby towns and cities, and some 1,500 workers from the Iranian Red Crescent, along with sniffer dogs and mountain rescue teams, fanned out with tents and tarpaulins to the effected villages.

The agency told international relief officials it did not need outside aid, said Roy Probert, a spokesman for the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Iranian relief officials said they were benefiting from their experience in the far more devastating earthquake that hit about 250 km away in Bam in December 2003, killing 26,000 people and flattening the historic city.

While homes made of mud collapsed in yesterday’s quake, cement buildings appeared not to have sustained heavy damage. The destruction was limited by the region’s sparse population and the depth of the quake — some 43 km compared to the 6.6-magnitude Bam quake’s depth of 10 km, according to the US Geological Survey.

Still, the tiny villages that dot the mountain ranges were heavily hit. In the village of Sarbagh, nearly 80 percent of the houses were destroyed. The quake was centered on the outskirts of Zarand, a town of about 15,000 people in Kerman province about 1,000 km southeast of the capital Tehran, according to the seismological unit of Tehran University’s Geophysics Institute.

Governor of Kerman province Mohammad Ali Karimi told state television at least 420 people were killed and 900 injured. He said the casualty toll was likely to rise.

“All hospitals in Zarand are filled to capacity with the injured. Hospitals in the town cannot receive any more of the injured,” an Iranian TV broadcast said.

Television quoted the governor of Zarand as saying that power in the region had been disrupted. He said supplies were needed, especially medicine, syringes and tents.

A spokesman for the governor, Mostafa Soltani, said the experience of the Bam quake helped local authorities cope with the situation. “The earthquake in 2003 gave us a very good experience of how to deal with such a natural disaster. Despite the rain, relief operations are going smoothly. Relief teams have reached the villages and are helping the survivors,” he said.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf expressed deep “shock and grief” over the loss of lives and offered assistance to deal with the disaster. “The loss of precious lives and the plight of injured and displaced persons is being felt acutely here in Pakistan,” Musharraf said in a message to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

In another neighboring country, Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai offered condolences. “I am saddened to hear this news,” Karzai’s office quoted him as saying: “I send mine and the Afghan people’s deep condolences to those affected and to the brotherly people of Iran.”

In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said France was ready to respond to any aid request. “France wishes to express its complete solidarity with the Iranian people,” said spokesman Herve Ladsous. “It is in touch with the Iranian authorities and has informed them it is ready to respond to any request.”