Iran earthquake kills 306, search for dead continues

Rejects help from a number of countries:

Twin earthquakes that devastated rural villages in northwest Iran killed a total of 306 people, most of them women and children, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi said yesterday, adding that the search for bodies was ongoing.

Another 3,037 were injured, of whom 2,011 were given first aid at the scene and the rest were taken to hospital, where 700 surgeries were performed, Vahid Dastjerdi told lawmakers in a report published on the parliament’s website.

“We are continuing the search for bodies,” she said. Another official addressing the lawmakers, Hassan Ghadami, a deputy interior minister in charge of crisis management, said: “Many of the victims were killed in the first hours (after the quake) due to the mass of muddy rubble... and the old structure of houses.

AFP