The twin quakes on 11.08.2012, measuring 6.4
and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale, flattened hundreds of hamlets in Iran’s
mountainous northwest, near the city of Tabriz.
As of 12.08.2012, the earthquake death toll is
about 306. Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi told a session of parliament
that the number jumped by about 50 after victims expired in the hospital. More
than 3,000 people were injured in the twin earthquakes that struck two days
ago, she added in comments broadcast on state radio.
In one hamlet visited by AP Television News
near the village of Bajeh Baj, 13 miles west of one of the epicenters,
furniture peeked out from under piles of bricks and collapsed roof timbers
while men sorted through debris, trying to salvage what little was left of
their households.
Residents say the earthquake killed 35 people
living in the simple dwellings surrounded by mountains. Dried earth was left
split wide open from the force of the shock, which cut some houses in two and
left the wall of one standing only where it was propped up by a refrigerator.
The death toll included some 219 women and
children, Dastjerdi said, adding that around 2,000 injured people had been
released from hospitals soon after the quake since they had only minor
injuries.
Dastjerdi said her ministry has deployed
scores of ambulances and medics to the region but still needs helicopters to
transfer seriously injured people quickly.
Authorities say old, heavy roofs without
frames were largely responsible for the death toll in the rural areas.
Scores of aftershocks have coursed through the
region since the 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude quakes hit the area, home to some
300,000 people in a 2,300-square-mile (6,000-square-kilometer) borderland near
Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The quakes hit the towns of Ahar, Haris and
Varzaqan in East Azerbaijan province. At least 12 villages were totally
leveled, and 425 others sustained damage ranging from 50 to 80 percent, state
TV and news agencies reported.
Many roads and other infrastructure were
heavily damaged. State TV showed relief workers distributing tents and helping
survivors, mainly in rural areas.
Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is
prone to earthquakes. In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6
magnitude quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.
Iran has rejected on 15.08.2012, a United
States offer of aid for survivors of deadly earthquakes which struck villages
in its north-west, saying the offer was not made in “good faith”.
However, the head of the interior ministry’s
crisis management organisation, Hassan Ghadami, told local media Iran had
declined aid offers.
“Iran did not accept the US offer for sending
humanitarian aid for quake survivors,” he said.
“We do not believe the US put forward the
offer in good faith. We are currently having a medicine supply crisis because
of sanctions.
“Do us a favour and lift the sanctions.”
Iran’s response underlined what it saw as US
hypocrisy, given that Washington this year has done all it can to isolate
Tehran, by imposing economic sanctions.
Although Iran’s Red Crescent said it had
rejected other offers of aid from Germany, Taiwan and Russia, media reports say
humanitarian cargoes from a handful of countries, including Qatar, Pakistan,
Switzerland and Azerbaijan, have arrived.
The US stressed that Americans had ways of
sending assistance to Iran for the quake, despite the sanctions.
The US and Iran have no diplomatic relations
and have been involved in a tense diplomatic standoff for decades, most
recently over Tehran’s nuclear program.
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