Iran quake survivors spend second night in the open

Tehran, Nov 14 (AFP) Tens of thousands of Iranians spenta second night in the open after a 7.3-magnitude quake strucknear the border with Iraq, kil...

Tehran, Nov 14 (AFP) Tens of thousands of Iranians spenta second night in the open after a 7.3-magnitude quake strucknear the border with Iraq, killing more than 400 people.

Residents who had fled their homes when Sunday's quakerocked the mountainous region spanning Iran's western provinceof Kermanshah and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan braved chillytemperatures as authorities struggled to get aid into thequake zone.

Iran has declared Tuesday a national day of mourning asofficials outlined the most pressing priorities and describedthe levels of destruction in some parts as "total".

President Hassan Rouhani visited the city of Kermanshahtoday and promised that the government would move swiftly tohelp those left homeless by the disaster.

"I want to assure those who are suffering that thegovernment has begun to act with all means at its disposal andis scrambling to resolve this problem as quickly as possible,"he said.

Rouhani said that all aid would be channelled through theHousing Foundation, one of the charitable trusts set up afterthe Islamic revolution of 1979 that are major players in theIranian economy.

The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Major GeneralMohammad Ali Jafari, said the immediate need was for tents,water and food.

"Newly constructed buildings... held up well, but the oldhouses built with earth were totally destroyed," he told statetelevision during a visit to the affected region.

The toll in Iran stood at 413 dead and 6,700 injured,while across the border in more sparsely populated areas ofIraq, the health ministry said eight people had died andseveral hundred were injured. Iraq's Red Crescent put the tollat nine dead.

Officials said they were setting up relief camps for thedisplaced and that 22,000 tents, 52,000 blankets and tonnes offood and water had been distributed. The official IRNA newsagency said 30 Red Crescent teams had been sent to the area.

Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of army helicopterswere reported to have joined the rescue effort after supremeleader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the government and armedforces to mobilise "all their means".

By late last night, officials said all the roads inKermanshah province had been reopened, although the worst-affected town of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab remained withoutelectricity, state television reported.

At least 280 people were killed in the town, home to some85,000 people. Crumpled vehicles lay under the rubble offlattened buildings on the streets.

The tremor shook several western Iranian cities includingTabriz and was also felt in southeastern Turkey, an AFPcorrespondent said. In the city of Diyarbakir, frightenedresidents ran out into the streets.

Several villages were totally destroyed in Iran's DalahooCounty, the Tasnim news agency reported. Five historicalmonuments in Kermanshah suffered minor damage, but theUNESCO-listed Behistun inscription from the seventh century BCwas not affected, the ISNA news agency said.

In the Iraqi town of Darbandikhan, Nizar Abdullah spentSunday night with neighbours sifting through the ruins of atwo-storey home next door after it crumbled into concretedebris.

"There were eight people inside," the 34-year-old IraqiKurd said.

Some family members managed to escape, but "neighboursand rescue workers pulled out the mother and one of thechildren dead from the rubble".

The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of23 kilometres, was felt for about 20 seconds in Baghdad, andfor longer in other provinces of Iraq, AFP journalists said.

It struck along a 1,500-kilometre (950-mile) fault linebetween the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, whichextends through western Iran and northeastern Iraq.

The area sees frequent seismic activity.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake in northern Iran killed40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a millionhomeless, reducing dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villagesto rubble.

Thirteen years later, a catastrophic quake flattenedswathes of the ancient southeastern Iranian city of Bam,killing at least 31,000.

Iran has experienced at least two major quake disasterssince -- one in 2005 that killed more than 600 people andanother in 2012 that left some 300 dead. (AFP)PMS.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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