’Quake kills 1000 in wall of mud

Press, 25 January 1989, Page 10

’Quake kills 1000 in wall of mud

NZPA-Reuter Moscow At least 1000 people have been killed, many of them by a huge wall of mud which engulfed their homes in seconds, after the second big earthquake to strike the Soviet Union in two months.

An eight kilometre-wide landslide triggered by the earthquake in the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan poured over hundreds of homes in the villages of Sharora and Okuli-Olu near the Afghan border on Monday. The landslide started by the 40-second ’quake dumped up to 15 metres of sand and clay on roads and houses. Zaimiddin Nasredinov, head of the Tajik news agency, said the entire village of Sharora had been buried. Asked whether there was hope of finding survivors he replied, “None whatsoever.”

At its epicentre 50km south-west of the capital of Dushanbe, the ’quake measured seven points on the 12-point Soviet scale — three points less than the tremor which killed at least 25,000 people in Ar-

menia, about 2000 km to the west, on December 7. Doctors and rescue workers were at the scene and at least one team of specialists had been sent from Moscow, the official Soviet news agency Tass said. West Germany had offered help and other countries were likely to do the same. “The number of killed was estimated at one thousand at the close of the day (Monday), but this is a preliminary figure,” Tass said. Just over 100 people are in hospital. “Rescue work is being continued and distant mountain villages have not been checked yet,” it added. “It is difficult to reach them due to damaged roads.”

Aerial film of the disaster area shown in Soviet television’s main news

programme showed a sea of mud, dotted with the remains of small houses and shacks.

Women wearing colourful Central Asian costumes wept while men with spades worked alongside mechanical diggers in the search for victims. “Cries and wails can be heard everywhere,” wrote a Tass correspondent who visited the disaster area. “Some lament and bury their relatives and near ones while others try to find the few survivors beneath the thick layer of sand and clay.” In a brief message the Soviet State and Communist Party leadership sent condolences to the victims and promised rapid assistance.

Tajikistan lies in the middle of a seismically active zone