Post date: Aug 12, 2012 2:44:8 PM
Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the streets after Saturday's (August 11) quakes in fear of more aftershocks, 40 of which have already struck.
Casualty figures are expected to rise, Iranian officials said, as some of the injured were in critical condition while others were still trapped under the rubble inaccessible to rescue workers hampered by darkness in the first hours after the quakes.
Rescue workers comb the rubble of dozens of villages throughout the night and into Sunday as two powerful earthquakes kill at least 250 people in northwest Iran.
NEAR TABRIZ, IRAN (AUGUST 12, 2012) (PRESS TV) - Two powerful earthquakes killed 250 people and injured an estimated 2,000 in northwest Iran, where rescue workers frantically combed the rubble of dozens of villages throughout the night and into Sunday (August 12) as medical staff desperately tried to save lives.
Six villages were destroyed and about 60 sustained more than 50 percent damage, Iranian media reported.
About 110 villages were damaged in the quakes, Deputy Interior Minister Hassan Ghadami was quoted by Fars as saying.
Video shown on Iranin news channels showed numerous collapsed buildings and a number of bodies lying on the floor near the city of Tabriz.
Other video showed victims being treated in hospital and massive destruction wrought by the earthquakes in East Azerbaijan Province.
"More than 1000 of the wounded and injured were transported. Eleven search and rescue teams and radar-tracking devices were deployed to specific areas. Around 400 emergency aid vehicles and aid supplies were dispatched. More than 1000 blankets and food supplies have been transferred to specific areas," said an unidentified rescue worker.
Iran is situated on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed more than 25,000 people.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar arrived in the area and held meetings with local officials meant to coordinate the emergency response, ISNA reported.
"The reality is that they have responded really well with their resources to this sudden disaster. They worked exceptionally well, they worked really hard. I personally thank them, as the representative of the President in this time of crisis. I thank the people," said Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday's first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz at a depth of 9.9 km (6.2 miles). A second quake measuring 6.3 struck 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz 11 minutes later at a similar depth.
A local emergency official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that about 2,000 people were believed to be injured.
The second quake struck near the town of Varzaghan. "The quake was so intense that people poured into the streets through fear," said the news agency Fars.
The hospital in Varzaghan, staffed by just two doctors and with shortages of medical supplies and food, was struggling to cope with about 500 injured, the Mehr news agency reported.
The earthquakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north and is predominantly populated by ethnic Azeris - a significant minority in Iran.
Its capital, Tabriz, is a major city and trading hub far from Iran's oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities. Buildings there are substantially built and the Iranian Students' News Agency said nobody in the city had been killed or hurt.
Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.
Hospitals in Tabriz took in many of the injured from the surrounding villages, and city residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, residents said.