It was 26 minutes and 52 seconds after five o’clock in the morning when the earth shook. American seismologists at the World Data Centre measured ”the event”, as they call it, at 6,5 on the Richter scale and located it at 28,9 degrees north, 58,2 degrees east.
Moments later in the slumbering Iranian city of Bam, thousands of people lay dead, at least 30 000 were injured, the historic mud-built fortress had collapsed along with 70% of the houses, and all communications with the outside world were cut off.
The devastating earthquake left 20Â 000 people dead and 30Â 000 injured, according to a provisional toll issued by the Interior Ministry, Iranian state television reported on Saturday.
Earlier the rector at the faculty of medicine in Kerman, Iraj Sharifi, said 5Â 000 people had been killed instantly and 20Â 000 were buried under rubble.
Unable to get a clear picture from the ground, the Iranian army sent up five helicopters and found block after block of destroyed homes. As news of the disaster spread, the roads around Bam became choked with people trying to leave the town or enter it to check on relatives, hampering rescue efforts.
In the town, distraught survivors wept beside corpses shrouded in blankets as mechanised diggers began hollowing out trenches where victims were buried without ceremony, in their hundreds.
”I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble,” Maryam (17) told a Reuters correspondent.
At the city’s only cemetery, a crowd of about 1 000 wailed and beat their chests and heads over about 500 corpses that lay on the ground.
Mohammed Karimi, in his thirties, was at the cemetery with the bodies of his wife and four-year-old daughter.
”There is nothing but devastation and debris,” he said.
Bam, with a population of about 200 000, is one of the best-known towns in Iran. Built around an oasis in the desert, it lies on the ancient Silk Road and its spectacular citadel, dating back more than two millennia, has become a major tourist attraction.
On Friday night, as darkness fell and homeless survivors shivered in below-freezing temperatures, the full scale of the disaster was still unclear. Traffic jams made access difficult, there was no electricity, and telephones, including mobile services, were cut off by the earthquake.
The local airport was still functioning but Bam’s two hospitals were not. The earthquake had wrecked them, too.
The injured, 90% of whom were described as critically ill, were being ferried by any available transport to the provincial capital of Kerman, 176km away, or treated on the spot in tents set up by the Red Crescent.
President Mohammed Khatami, who chaired an emergency meeting, declared three days of mourning. He ordered the formation of a crisis centre and dispatched the interior and transport ministers to the area to assess the needs of survivors.
The first 48 hours would be critical, he said. Iran needed equipment to find those trapped alive and also heavy machinery to lift the rubble.
The Interior Minister, Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, said the two priorities were dealing with people trapped under collapsed buildings and transferring the injured to other areas. Four transport planes had already carried some of the injured out of the area, he told Iranian television.
He said it was also imperative to set up tents for the homeless. Night-time temperatures were expected to drop to -6 degrees Celsius.
Government ministries set up bank accounts for people to donate funds, and launched appeals for tinned food, warm clothing and blankets.
Iran suffers frequent earthquakes and is relatively well-organised for coping with the aftermath, though casualties tend to be high because buildings are not constructed to withstand tremors.
Last October a leading Iranian earthquake expert warned that earthquake education in Iran was very poor.
”Most people think what God wills will happen. This is absolutely wrong. This thinking is poisonous,” said Bahram Akasheh, professor of geophysics at Tehran University.
The country’s worst earthquake, in June 1990, devastated the Caspian regions of Gilan and Zanjan. It killed about 35 000 people, injured 100 000 and left 500 000 homeless.
The Iranian government on Friday appealed for international help. Germany was planning to send aid, and Russia said two transport aircraft bearing rescue workers and equipment were due to leave for Iran. Britain said it would send two rescue teams.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw phoned Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to express condolences and offer the services of the specialist searchers. Kharrazi welcomed this offer and arrangements were being made to send the teams, the department said.
”Our condolences go to the relations of those who tragically perished in this natural disaster,” Straw said. ”We will do all we can to help.”
Rescue work official Mohammad Jahanshahi told the official news agency Irna: ”We urgently need body bags. When daybreak comes, thousands of bodies will be pulled from the ruins and we have an immediate need for bags to transport the bodies.”
The United States also offered help but did not specify what it would be.
”We are offering humanitarian assistance,” White House spokesperson Scott McClellan told reporters. ”This is a terrible tragedy.”
The Bush administration regards Iran as a member of the ”axis of evil” and has no diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Last year, when more than 200 Iranians died in an earthquake, the US sent water purification kits, hygiene kits and blankets, but because of the political sensitivities the aid arrived in a plane flown by a Ugandan crew and with no US markings. — Guardian Unlimited