Iranian Earthquake Toll Put At 20,000

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 15

Iranian Earthquake Toll Put At 20,000

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

TEHERAN, September 2.

The official death toll in Iran’s disastrous earthquake rose to more than 20,000 today as fresh tremors thundered in the stricken area in the remote north-east of the country.

At Kakhk, the epicentre of the first main earthquake, police and Red Lion and Sun (Iranian Red Cross) authorities reported more than 4500 dead.

The total official death toll this morning was 14,000 but additional lists sent to the headquarters of the relief organisation during the day have brought this figure to more than 20,000.

Fresh tremors struck the already badly hit town of Gonabad and its surrounding area last night, bringing down the last remaining walls but causing no further casualties.

-The Prime Minister (Amir Abbas Hoveida) and four of his Cabinet Ministers spent the night among the victims at Gonabad, supervising relief operations. This morning they flew on to Kakhk, where more than 4500 people died in the first earthquake, which registered 7.8 on the Richter scale. A

second major earthquake yesterday registered 6.5. Throughout today thousands of rescue workers continued to dig for the bodies of victims buried under tons of debris in the many devastated towns and villages. Transport and communications are minimal, and some rescue teams, including troops and gendarmes, are still trying to reach inaccessible communities within the shock radius, and it is feared that their reports will push the death figure even higher. More than 100,000 people are reported to be homeless and living in the open in the rugged, mountainous area. The newspapers, “Ettelaat”

and “Kayhan,” which have correspondents throughout the devastated area, say 846 bodies were recovered by noon yesterday. An estimated 4500 people were buried in villages surrounding Kakhak. Eight thousand dead were counted in the towns of Gonabad, Dasht-Bayay and Ghayan. In the village of Biaz-abad, at least 1000 of the 2000 inhabitants were killed, the correspondents said. “The earthquake hit with such force that I thought it was the end of the world,” said one farmer whose wife was killed. A dramatic message to Teheran gave the news of yesterday’s devastating aftershock, which toppled houses and buildings and shattered the ancient, towering mosque at Birjand. “The earth is shaking beneath my feet,” a telegraph operator signalled from Birjand’s cable office. “My hands are trembling . . . the entire communications system is collapsing ...” Then there was silence.

Two field hospitals have been established in Kakhak, and Iranian Air Force planes are airlifting supplies to the stricken region. Eighteen caravans laden with food and medical supplies and carrying doctors have been dispatched from Teheran. The disaster was the sixth major earthquake in Iranian history and the second in six years, according to the National Earthquake Information Centre in Washington, giving these death tolls: 45,000 killed In 856 A.D., 16,000 in 872 A.D., 40,000 in 1755, 10,000 in 1853, and 12,225 in 1962.