Iran: earthquake killed 306, officials say

The two strong earthquakes that devastated rural villages in northwestern Iran over the weekend killed a total of 306 people - women and children mostly - and wounded 3,037, said on Monday the country's health minister, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi. She said the death toll rose because 50 people were wounded died in hospitals. She said 219 women and 306 children were among the dead and most of 2000 injured were released from hospital a few hours later because they had minor injuries. The figures, presented in a report to Congress and posted on the parliament, are much higher than those offered on Sunday by Interior Minister Mustafa Mohammad-Najjar. On occasion, the minister said there were 227 dead and 1,380 injured. Iranian officials say the old ceilings, structures with weak anchors, were largely responsible for landslides in rural areas. Shock waves hit the region, where about 300,000 people near the borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two major earthquakes had magnitude of 6.4 and 6.3 on the Richter scale, on Saturday night, the northwestern city of Tabriz, capital of Iranian Azerbaijan. Earthquakes hit hard the towns of Ahar, Haris and Varzaqan in East Azerbaijan.According to Iranian state television, 12 villages were razed and 425 others from 50% to 80% of buildings were damaged. Many roads in the mountainous region were severely damaged. Meanwhile, the Red Crescent of Iran said the country needs no international aid. The spokesman for the Red Crescent, Pouya Hajian, said that the embassies of Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, among others, offered assistance, as well as the arm of the United Nations for children, UNICEF. But the Red Crescent of Iran ruled that the aid is not necessary, sending back to a team of rescuers from Turkey who arrived without prior arrangement with local authorities, state news agency IRNA said. On Sunday, the authorities abandoned the search, by claiming that all possible survivors had been rescued.