Just, wow.
http://www.reuters.com/printerFriend...toryID=4047680
Quake Kills 20,000 in Ancient Iranian City
Fri December 26, 2003 03:54 PM ET
By Parisa Hafezi
BAM, Iran (Reuters) - A pre-dawn earthquake razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran on Friday, killing more than 20,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, government officials said.
About 70 per cent of the buildings in the historic city, a popular tourist spot some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran, had collapsed and many residents were trapped under the rubble, state television said.
"Rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than 20,000," a senior government official said. The quake at about 5:30 a.m. (9 p.m. EST Thursday) measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Other officials said around 50,000 people were injured in and around the city, which, with its environs, had a population of some 200,000 people.
Bam was without water, electricity or gas as night fell and temperatures headed below freezing. Residents set fires to stay warm and made torches from palm branches for light as they dug with bare hands for survivors.
Bam governor Ali Shafiee told state TV: "The city of Bam must be built from scratch."
Bawling infants and dazed adults gathered in city squares, huddling against the cold under woolen blankets. Rubble-strewn pavements were lined with injured, some on intravenous drips.
State media said two hospitals had collapsed, crushing many of the staff, and the remaining hospitals were full. The injured were being ferried to neighboring towns.
Reuters witnesses said many houses had been flattened.
Distraught relatives wept next to shrouded corpses. Hundreds of bodies were bundled into trucks. Mechanized diggers hollowed out trenches where the dead were buried quickly without rites.
"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," said Maryam, 17.
One grief-stricken old woman smeared her face with dirt, only able to utter: "My child, my child."
GOVERNMENT ACCUSED
Angry people accused the government of doing nothing to help them and said they were still without tents, water or fuel.
Witnesses said the road to Bam was choked with ambulances and people desperate to find family members.
Houses in the date-growing area are traditionally made from mud-brick, making them vulnerable to earthquakes.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran needed search dogs, blankets and medicines from the world community.
Russia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, the United States and other states were sending help, including doctors, medical supplies and rescuers with sniffer dogs and special equipment to locate survivors buried beneath rubble.
A large part of the ancient citadel was destroyed, Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province, where Bam is located, said. Dating back 2,000 years, it had fortifications, towers, buildings, stables and a mosque.
Bam is on the old Silk Road route between China and Europe used by merchants and travelers for centuries. It is a tourist spot with inns, a gymnasium, a theological school and bazaars.
The quake, a regular occurrence in a country crossed by major faultlines, struck when most residents were asleep.
In June last year, a tremor measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit northern Iran, killing at least 229 people and injuring more than 1,000.
Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran. Tehran was hit by a quake of about seven on the Richter scale in 1830.
(Additional reporting by Christian Oliver in Tehran)
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