Iran: Aftershocks jolt city of Bam
Two massive aftershocks caused more walls to tumble and left a rising cloud of dust over the remains of Iran’s earthquake devastated city of Bam today.
More than 21,000 bodies have been retrieved since Friday’s 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the city and surrounding region in southeast Iran, according to provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh.
“Many, many more people remain buried under the rubble, increasing fears of a much greater death toll at the end,” Iranmanesh said.
Some officials have expressed fears that the death toll could rise as high as 40,000.
Iranmanesh said that 10,000 people were in hospital.
Hopes of finding more survivors faded today, 72 hours after the quake buried thousands of sleeping residents in their homes. Experts say 72 hours is generally the longest people can survive if they are trapped in rubble.
Rescue workers from around the world joined Iranians in searching through powdery debris that left little room for air pockets which could allow people to survive.
James Brown, spokesman for a British rescue team, said a human being could normally survive three to four days without water, and three to four weeks without food.
“There is always hope for survivors,” Brown said.
Only one man was pulled alive from the rubble yesterday, Iranmanesh said. A day earlier, officials reported freeing 150 survivors.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said the search for survivors would probably end tonight.
Ted Pearn, coordinator of UN relief operations in Bam, said 1,400 international relief workers were in Bam, part of 35 teams from 26 countries.
Planes from dozens of countries have landed in the provincial capital of Kerman with relief supplies, volunteers and dogs trained to find bodies and survivors.
Traffic clogged the roads leading in and out of Bam, 630 miles southeast of Tehran, the Iranian capital.
Survivors with any kind of motor vehicle loaded furniture and whatever they could salvage and headed for other cities. Incoming traffic brought relief supplies, volunteers and relatives desperate for news of their kin.
Luca Spoletini, spokesman for the Italian Civil Protection, said its teams found nothing but corpses after a day spent probing the rubble yesterday.
Describing a visit to Barazat, a town with a population of 20,000 a few miles outside Bam, Spoletini said: “There is nothing any more. Not one single house, not one single building stands upright. It is like the Apocalypse. I have never seen anything like that.”
