HOUTKAN, Iran, 24 February 2005 — Rescuers using their bare hands pulled more bodies yesterday from the rubble of freezing mountain villages flattened by a powerful earthquake in Iran as officials warned the death toll could reach 550. President Mohammad Khatami, whose government is facing protests from stricken villagers at the delay in aid reaching some of the most devastated areas, said Iran would accept international help if offered.
“I have lost 15 of 30 members of my family,” cried soldier Hossein Mirzaie who returned to his home village of Houtkan in the mountains of Kerman province after the tragedy struck.
Hundreds of rescue workers and soldiers were searching through the rubble of mud-brick buildings with their hands as blocked roads made it impossible for heavy earthmoving equipment to reach some villages.
Residents who were forced to spend the night outdoors in the freezing cold were burying their dead as snow fell yesterday and ambulances were transformed into makeshift hearses.
“The number of victims could reach 550 but we don’t think it will go much beyond that,” Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari told journalists. A hospital official told state radio that the latest toll was 530 but government officials from the region said it was 450.
Whole villages in remote mountain areas were turned to rubble by the force of the earthquake in the southeastern province of Kerman which had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale and centered on the Zarand district.
