Rescuers comb sea of rubble as ’quake toll nears 20,000

Press, 20 September 1978, Page 9

Rescuers comb sea of rubble as ’quake toll nears 20,000

NZPA-Reuter Tabas, Iran I he death toll in the town of Tabas and 40 surrounding villages destroyed in Iran’s worst earthquake this century could reach 20,000, according to some official estimates.

At least 11,000 of the 13,000 people in the oasis town are known to have died in an earthquake which struck three days ago, registering seven on the Richter scale.

Teams are now fanning out into rural areas in the northeastern province of Khorassan to bring help to the 40 villages destroyed and 60 villages damaged in the disaster.

Already there are signs that estimates of 11,000 killed in Tabas could be too low. One Army captain estimated that 15,000 died in and around the town, while other officials said the toll for Tabas and the surrounding villages could reach 20,000. The earthquake has turned Tabas into a sea of rubble. Weeping people are still fighting through mounds of mud-brick debris to find the corpses of relatives they know are dead.

An eyewitness said of Saturday night’s tremor: “One giant heave, and the town turned into a graveyard. All that is left are thousands of bodies, mounds of ruins, and hundreds of dazed survivors.

“Tabas looks like ploughed land. All you can see are lumps of earth, bricks or broken doors, and windows. In front of each heap of rubble you see a body or two

wrapped in blankets, or survivors looking stunned, their heads in bandages.” Empress Farah, wife of the Shah, toured the Tabas area on Monday and was quoted as saying that there were no buildings in the town left standing. The few buildings which partially survived the disaster were those made of modem fired bricks — two schools, a bank, and a municipal office. But the mud-brick dwellings have crumbled into jagged blocks of rubble that buried thousands at their dinner tables. Most of the town was flattened in a minute by the initial shock.

Relief officials said there were about 700 people injured by the earthquake. Some 500 of them have been airlifted to Teheran on the return flights of transport planes bringing in relief supplies as part of a round-the-clock airlift.

General Jaafar Sanei, the officer in charge of the Army relief operation, said that what Tabas needed now was food and water. About 1000 soldiers are already in the town, but a local official said he thought 2500 more people were needed to help clear the city and find all the corpses. Water is being flown into Tabas, and work is expected to begin today on restoring the town’s water supply.

Radio Iran said that 650 bodies had been recovered so far.

More than 7000 people from neighbouring cities and towns have joined soldiers, the police and other agencies in the relief operations. Food, water, kerosene, blankets, and tents have been rushed to the scene to aid survivors.

In Geneva, the Red Cross said it had sent two officials to Tabas to assess what help is needed and a Government spokesman said that Switzer, land was ready to help rebuild villages demolished in the earthquake zone.