bam quake
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
EMERGENCY AID
Aid agencies say disaster victims need at least:
Shelter: 3.5 square metres
Water: 7 litres/day
Food: 2,100 kilocalories/day
WORST QUAKE SINCE 1990
21 June 1990: 40,000 killed in Gilan, Iran
7 December 1988: 25,000 killed in north-west Armenia
28 July 1976: 500,000 killed in Tangshan, China
New push to help quake survivors
Relief teams in southern Iran are concentrating on caring for those made homeless by last week's earthquake, as hopes fade of finding more survivors.
The bodies of 25,000 victims have been recovered - but many more are thought to be buried under the rubble.
With some rescuers pulling out, aid workers are now highlighting the plight of exposed survivors.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has visited the ancient city of Bam and pledged to rebuild it.
Aid workers say they are concentrating on providing shelter, food and heaters to the tens of thousands of survivors facing long, cold nights in the open.
A United Nations official warned that even a common cold could prove fatal to them.
"We are talking about the risk of a massive outbreak of all kinds of illnesses and diseases," Hamid Marashi of the UN children's fund Unicef told AFP news agency.
With fresh aftershocks rattling Bam on Monday, few people were willing to return to their damaged homes.
Some 30,000 people were injured in the quake. Aid workers put the number of homeless at more than 100,000.
In a rare moment of hope on Monday, officials said a baby had been found alive in the arms of her dead mother.
Rescuers said the six-month-old girl had been saved by her mother's embrace from falling debris.
Earlier on Monday, a 12-year-old girl was rescued with a broken leg from the rubble of a house. She had apparently been saved because the roof had not totally collapsed, allowing her some air.
Only 2,000 people have been found alive and many international rescue teams have given up hope of finding any more survivors, more than three days after the quake.
Bricks used in buildings in Bam are generally made out of baked mud which turns to dust and sand when buildings collapse - limiting the possibility of air pockets in the rubble.
"The first phase is over," said Thomas Krimm of the German relief organisation THW.
"That means the search and rescue teams are winding down."
Meanwhile Iran and foreign relief teams are continuing to work around the clock.
About 1,400 workers from 26 countries have converged on Bam, the UN official coordinating relief operations said.
Pledges
Dozens of aid planes have landed in Bam and Kerman, the provincial capital 190 kilometres away (120 miles).
These include eight cargo planes from the United States, which has tense relations with Iran.
In the latest international pledge, the Gulf Co-operation Council has agreed to send $400m to help with reconstruction project.
Several council member states have already sent planeloads of aid.
Police reinforcements are said to have been deployed to stem looting - sometimes by armed men in vans stealing tents and blankets.
During his visit to Bam on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei said: "We share your pain, we have lost our own children."
"We will rebuild Bam stronger than before," he said.
President Mohammad Khatami also reviewed the rescue work and the damage.
"Whatever we do, it will still be too little," he said. "Hopefully, as time goes by more aid will arrive."
President Khatami is to convene a government meeting in the regional capital on Tuesday, having brought his whole government to the affected area.
Bam with its 2,000-year-old historic citadel was a major Iranian tourist attraction. Now much of that heritage has been reduced to rubble and dust.
Friday's quake is thought to be the deadliest the world has seen since 1990 when an earthquake, also in Iran, claimed 40,000 lives.
U.S. to Provide Humanitarian Assistance to Iran
More than 200 experts in emergency medicine and disaster relief to be deployed
The White house announced on December 27 that the U.S. government is working with Iranian and international relief groups to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Iran after an earthquake there yesterday that devastated the city of Bam.
According to the White House, the U.S. military will deliver more than 150,000 pounds of medical supplies to Iran from bases in Kuwait.
Following is the text of the White House statement:
(begin text)
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
December 27, 2003
STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY
The United States government is currently working with Iranian authorities, the United Nations, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to rapidly deploy humanitarian assistance to the people of Iran following yesterday's devastating earthquake in Bam.
The United States will deploy civilian teams composed of more than 200 experts in urban search and rescue, emergency surgery, and disaster response coordination -- including medical response teams from Boston, Massachusetts, and local disaster response teams from Los Angeles, California, and Fairfax County, Virginia. Disaster response experts will also be drawn from USAID, FEMA, and the Department of State, and the US military will deliver more than 150,000 pounds of medical supplies from bases in Kuwait to the people of Iran.
The United States will continue to work with Iranian authorities and international relief organizations to help the people of Iran during this challenging time.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Supreme Leader message in full text
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei here on Friday in a message sent to the bereaved families of the killer quake condoled with them and called all official organizations to urgently assist the people.
The full text of the message is as follows: Considering the dreadful and sad event in the city of Bam of Kerman province in which many families of our beloved nation lost their lives or were injured, I would like to convey my heartfelt condolences to the noble Iranian nation and the bereaved families of the victims.
"I pray to God for fast recovery of the injured people and call the executive bodies to take immediate action in rendering aid to the needy people."
"I ask all the Iranian people specially those in the provinces neighboring Kerman to assist their brothers", concluded the Supreme Leader.
Khatami (The Iranian President) condoles bereaved families
Tehran, Dec 27 - President Mohammad Khatami condoled here Friday with the bereaved families of the victims who lost their lives in a killer and devastating quake on Friday morning in Kerman province.
In a message sent for Interior Minister Mousavi Lari President Khatami called for formation of a headquarter under supervision of the ministry to conduct the affairs.
In the message the President has expressed sorrow for the catastrophe and expressed sympathy with the people in Kerman as well as all Iranians nationwide.
President Khatami has called for formation of a headquarter under supervision of Interior Minister, Minister of Health, Treatment and Education, Minister of Road and Transportation, head of Management and Planning Organization, head of Presidential Off ice for Deprived Area to urgently take immediate action in rendering relief aid to the people.
Khatami noted the incident is considered as a national disaster which requires collective collaboration and cooperation of all executive and military organizations to mobilize all their facilities to help the victims.
The strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked the city of Bam in Kerman province at 5:28 hour local time (0158 GMT) on Friday.
Several aftershocks, at least one up to 5.3 degrees on Richter scale, hit the quake-stricken city of Bam after the 6.3-degree quake rocked the city.
3 days of mourning declared
Government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh said here Friday that following a devastating and killer quake in Kerman province which inflicted heavy losses, the government has declared a national three-day mourning.
The strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked the city of Bam in Kerman province at 5:28 hour local time (0158 gmt) on Friday.
Several aftershocks, at least one up to 5.3 degrees on Richter scale, hit the quake-stricken city of Bam after the 6.3-degree quake rocked the city.
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting(IRIB) Reports:
Bam divided to 6 disaster zones
Tehran, Dec 27 - The real rage of an apocalyptic earthquake in the palm-growing Silk Road city of Bam is dawning on Iranians who flooded relief-mobilization centers for blood and other aid donations on Saturday as foreign aid teams flew in.
A local official said 12 sniffer dogs had been transferred to Bam from the southeastern Sistan Baluchestan province, where they are usually used to catch illegal drugs, and 30 others were due to be shipped.
According to Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, the city has been divided to six disaster zones in order to accelerate relief and rescue operations.
"The main issue now is to save the lives of those remaining under the debris. However, transfer of the injured is a priority," he said.
Provisional accommodation of the residents, Lari said, is expected to finish at the end of the day. The head of Iran's Telecommunications Company, Ali Akbar Sanati, said telephone link has been restored in the city which had seen its telecommunications system totally demolished.
An Army Air Force official, Brigadier Amir Habibi, said more than 600 tons of relief aid, including medicine, ambulances, blankets, heating equipment, tents and canned food, had been shipped to the provincial center of Kerman on 20 flights.
According to an official at the Kerman governor's office, two flights, carrying rescue and relief teams with sniffer dogs, from Germany and Switzerland had arrived in Kerman and a further British flight was due to touch down at the city's airport.
The Red Crescent Society said Iran had also received more help offers from most of the European Union states as well as many other countries, including Japan, New Zealand, the United Nations, Malaysia, Turkey and Greece.
Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, however, rejected the aid offer made by Israel.
The official said Iran had waived visa requirement for foreign relief workers as he made a plea for international assistance, including for detection equipment, sniffer dogs, medicines, blankets, tents and pre-fabricated units.
Iranians across the country also swung into action to provide help for those affected.
Messages of solicitude and condolences poured in from across the world.
Bam and its environs, home to about 200,000 people, were rattled by a strong tremor at 5:28 hours (0158 GMT) on Friday. Most of the buildings in the city are shoddily-built with mud bricks.
The Tehran Geophysics Institute put the magnitude of the quake at 6.3 degrees, while international seismological observatories recorded the tremor as strong as 6.7 degrees.
The desert city, located 1,000 kilometers southeast of capital Tehran, is home to several landmarks, including a 2000-old citadel, said to the be the world's biggest mud-brick structure, which is almost gone now.
General mood in Bam was somber. State television showed footage of dazed residents, with women wailing near the bodies of their dear ones. Rarely was any building seen with their walls standing.
Some of the residents were shown combing through the debris in a frantic effort to pull out those entrapped. Several hundred bodies were bundled and transferred to a sports stadium lawn before burial.
Exact casualty figures are not likely to emerge yet.
Earthquakes are almost a rule in Iran, a country sitting on major faultlines in the earth's structure.
Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran.
And Again at Sat December 27, 2003 07:13 AM ET Reuters reports:
Foreign Teams Aid Iran Quake Rescuers, 20,000 Dead
BAM, Iran (Reuters) - International rescue workers hacked desperately through flattened debris for survivors and cemeteries overflowed in Iran's ancient Silk Road city of Bam on Saturday after an earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people.
President Bush, who once branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" developing weapons of mass destruction, as well as other world leaders rushed to offer whatever help they could to the Islamic Republic.
Many people were still pinned under the rubble of the shattered city of 80,000, their prospects of survival diminishing with the passing of time. Homeless survivors awoke from a piercingly cold night huddled under woolen blankets to find a city without water and power.
President Mohammad Khatami has admitted Iran cannot cope on its own. The official IRNA news agency quoted Iran's Interior Ministry as saying assistance would be welcome from every corner of the globe other than Israel.
Swiss rescuers with sniffer dogs were the first foreign team to start hunting for trapped survivors, Iranian television said.
The pre-dawn quake on Friday also injured about 30,000 people, state television said. The quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck when many people were still asleep.
Reuters witnesses said the city's cemeteries were crammed to overflowing with fully-clothed corpses and a stench of death was beginning to pervade the streets.
The International Red Crescent has advised people to wear gloves and facemasks because of fears of an epidemic.
Fatemeh, 35, was burying her two children. "I am burying myself in this grave," she said.
Taher, 50, was inconsolable, sobbing "wake up, wake up" to the corpse of his teenage son Farzad.
About 70 per cent of Bam, a popular tourist spot some 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran with an historic citadel and other centuries-old buildings, was leveled.
Exhausted, dust-covered rescue worker Omid Alipour said his team had dug out only three injured people during the night.
"We don't have anything, just our bare hands," he said.
Reporters said there was little sign of any aid heading out to the 120,000 or so people in the quake-stricken outlying villages.
DEATH TOLL MOUNTS
The Interior Ministry confirmed on Saturday that the death toll now stood at 20,000, state television said.
Witnesses said hundreds of bodies had already been tipped into broad trenches hollowed out by mechanical diggers. Bam airport has been converted into a sprawling, makeshift hospital.
Washington has no official ties with Tehran, but Bush said in a statement: "We stand ready to help the people of Iran."
A U.S. official said the State Department would be announcing an aid package soon.
The United Nations, European Union countries, Russia, China, Poland, Japan, Turkey and others also heeded Iran's appeals for help from the international community.
They pledged doctors, medical supplies, financial aid, and rescuers with sniffer dogs and equipment to locate survivors.
A 68-strong British rescue team with sniffer dogs, special cameras and listening devices touched down in Kerman, near Bam, early on Saturday.
"We need help, otherwise we will be pulling corpses, not the injured, out of the rubble," Brigadier Mohammadi, commander of the army in southeast Iran, told state television.
INJURED TREATED AMID RUBBLE
Rubble-strewn pavements were lined with injured, some on intravenous drips.
A large part of the ancient citadel was destroyed, Kerman province governor Mohammad Ali Karimi said. Dating back 2,000 years, it had sprawling fortifications, towers, stables and a mosque. It was the city's main tourist attraction.
"The city of Bam must be built from scratch," said its governor Ali Shafiee.
Houses in the date-growing area are traditionally made from mud-brick, making them vulnerable to earthquakes.
Bam is on the old Silk Road route between China and Europe used by merchants and travelers for centuries. It is noted for its inns, a theological school and bazaars.
The country's sharply divided press was united in grief across the conservative and reformist spectrum.
The reformist Sharq newspaper called for builders to observe widely flouted construction laws.
Earthquakes are a regular occurrence in Iran, an oil-producing country crossed by major faultlines.
Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran.
Reuters Broadcasts at Sat December 27, 2003 07:41 AM ET :
World Unites in Offering Help to Quake-Hit Iran
GENEVA- President Bush, who once branded Iran part of an "axis of evil," and other world leaders stepped up aid on Saturday to Tehran, struggling to cope with an earthquake disaster that killed 20,000 people.
Washington has no official ties with Tehran, but Bush said in a statement: "We stand ready to help the people of Iran." A U.S. official said an aid package would be announced soon.
Washington broke diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic after militant students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Bush has accused Iran of trying to develop weapons of mass destruction in secret, but Tehran said assistance was welcome from every corner of the globe other than Israel, its other great political enemy along with the United States.
Iranian officials said some 50,000 people were also injured when Friday's quake struck the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in southeast Iran, devastating 70 percent of its buildings.
The United Nations, European Union countries, Russia, China, Poland, Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Australia and others pledged doctors, medical supplies, financial aid and rescuers with sniffer dogs and equipment to help find survivors.
ITALY OVERSEES EU AID
Italy, as current president of the European Union, will coordinate EU aid to avoid duplication.
The United Nations said it was releasing an immediate emergency grant of $90,000 and had sent experts to help assess the damage. Its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the U.N. team would also work to mobilize and oversee international assistance.
The immediate need was for medicines, tents, mobile hospitals, electricity generators, water purification equipment and blankets, OCHA official Madeleine Moulin-Azevedo said.
The U.N. children's fund UNICEF said it was sending medical supplies and called for $350,000 in donations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's office said he had ordered the Emergencies Ministry, which deals with frequent natural and man-made disasters, to send doctors, paramedics and sniffer dog handlers to help find people buried under rubble.
Planes were due leave for Iran on Saturday with 100 experts for searching collapsed buildings, 10 doctors and search dogs.
Russia has close ties with Iran, and is building a nuclear power station near the southern city of Bushehr on the Gulf.
EU COORDINATION
Agostino Miozzo, the official coordinating EU aid, said France was sending a field hospital and the Czech Republic, one of 10 countries entering the bloc next year, also offered help.
"This is the first time EU coordination is taking place for a disaster," Miozzo said. The EU Commission said it would mobilize 800,000 euros ($995,100) of initial humanitarian emergency aid.
Part of a 60-strong British rescue team with sniffer dogs, special cameras and listening devices arrived in Bam on Saturday and officials said the rest were expected to join them soon.
A Belgian C-130 military transport plane was due to bring vehicles, water, blankets and food on Saturday and Belgium also offered a field hospital and medical crew.
Italy sent a sniffer dog unit, fire brigade and search teams and Germany offered help in rescuing people who may be trapped in collapsed buildings and to repair damage. A plane carrying 42 German rescuers arrived in the Iranian capital on Saturday.
ISRAEL CONDEMNS SNUB
Israel offered condolences and government spokesman Avi Pazner said private Israeli societies had offered help. "But Iran prefers to play politics instead of accepting a generous offer by private Israelis. It is their decision," he said.
Turkey, which has plenty of experience in quake relief work, said five military cargo planes carrying search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid and body bags had arrived near Bam on Saturday. Extra aid was due to arrive by road early next week.
Japan, another country with quake expertise, said it was sending a specialist medical team and about $230,000 of equipment including tents, generators, blankets and water tanks.
China said the first batch of $600,000 worth of aid would be dispatched Saturday along with a 43-member rescue team.
Australia pledged $1.5 million in emergency help and South Korea offered at least $200,000-worth.
Greece, which pledged more than $300,000 in emergency aid, said a 20-strong emergency and rescue team and supplies would fly on Saturday with more doctors and equipment following later.
Austria was due to send 120 rescue workers on Saturday with sniffer dogs and two water purification machines and Saudi Arabia also planned to send a medical team on Saturday armed with medicine, blood, food and clothing.
Jordan was planning to dispatch a military field hospital with up to 80 staff and other in-kind assistance by Monday while the Red Crescent in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also announced they would send supplies and medicine.
BBC Reports later:
Rescuers leave Christmas behind
Derek Jolly is one of the British emergency experts who dropped everything to fly out to Iran to help with the earthquake rescue effort.
His sister, BBC News Online's Paula Dear, tells how their family Boxing Day celebration in Scotland was abruptly brought to a halt as news of the disaster emerged.
My brother Derek is one of seven volunteer rescuers to have been sent from Scotland.
His bag has been packed since he qualified for the International Rescue Corps (IRC) last year, following two years of intensive and exhausting training on his days off work as a paediatric intensive care nurse.
Following several false alarms and "standby" situations, this is his first overseas mission.
Boxing Day had been set aside for watching all our new DVDs
We'd had a late night, having enjoyed Christmas dinner with Derek, his wife Fiona, their first child - three-month-old Skye - and our families.
Boxing Day had been set aside for watching all our new DVDs and getting through a pile of chocolates.
On Friday morning, the phone rang just after 0900 GMT.
Derek came into our room, asking if he could get into the cupboard for his IRC kit.
"There's been an earthquake in Iran, I have to get ready," he said.
We'd heard this before; he'd probably be put on standby, then nothing would come of it. I rolled over and drifted back to sleep.
Packing equipment
Half an hour later it was starting to look serious.
Derek was emptying an enormous holdall onto the hall floor and checking every single piece of kit. "Can't find a space for my hammer," he said, as the rest of us shuffled around and tried to look useful.
We were half way through Christmas dinner mark two when the final call came
He proudly showed me his new torch, which has a red filter on it to prevent "blinding" survivors who have been trapped in the dark for long periods.
Several phone calls later and it seemed certain he would be going at least as far as London, from our home town of Dunfermline, Fife.
There was every chance he'd get that far then have to turn around and come home again.
Sometimes the government of the affected country doesn't request assistance, sometimes the disaster isn't so bad as first thought, sometimes there are no survivors to rescue.
He called work to warn them he might not be in next week. They told him to go for it, and not to worry.
His wife, who works in the same department, would keep them up to date.
"Let's have some turkey leftovers while we wait for confirmation," was my very helpful suggestion.
If he ended up in Iran it was probably going to be hours, or days, before he got a proper meal again.
We were half way through Christmas dinner mark two when the final call came.
That was it, he was going, and he was going now.
He probably would have had time to finish his food, but by then his stomach was in a different place.
He wanted this mission, wanted badly to put his training to good use, but the excitement was mixed with a generous helping of nerves and fear.
He climbed into his blue rescue jumpsuit, kissed his wife and new daughter and jumped into the car.
No contact
We stayed glued to the news for the next few hours. Aftershocks had been rippling through the town. It looked like a dangerous place to be.
Derek called from the airport, saying they would soon be boarding a plane chartered by the British Government.
My worried parents wished him luck and ordered him to be careful.
His mobile phone will be left behind in the UK. From now on there will be no more direct contact, other than a daily call to Fiona from the IRC's operations people, to keep her informed.
Christmas is over. All we can do now is wait.
BBC Reports:
UK experts joining quake rescue
British rescue teams are "optimistic" they will find earthquake survivors, after arriving in Iran on Saturday.
More than 60 UK doctors, paramedics and volunteers were joining emergency workers in the city of Bam, where 10,000 to 25,000 people are feared dead.
Graham Payne, head of charity Rapid-UK said: "The weather is not too bad, so if anyone is found trapped there is a good chance we will get them out."
The UK government has pledged £150,000 to help pay for emergency supplies.
The British Embassy in Tehran said that a Briton who was in the area is missing, while another UK national was slightly injured in the earthquake.
A further 28 Britons known to be in Bam, one of Iran's most important tourist sites, escaped the earthquake unhurt.
Sniffer dogs
The British rescuers flew from Stansted Airport in Essex to Kerman, 125 miles from the epicentre of Friday's quake, which also injured thousands of people and destroyed 70% of homes.
The government funded flight also carried sniffer dogs and officials.
"The Iranian Red Crescent are well trained and ready to respond to earthquakes, however due to the massive scale of this disaster they need our help"
Paul Anticoni
British Red Cross
Rapid-UK's team of 20 was expected to scour rubble from two hospitals and larger apartment blocks that local workers have not had time to search.
They have specialist equipment with them, including snake-eye cameras, high-tech listening devices and carbon dioxide detectors, to search for people trapped under buildings.
Also on the flights were members of the International Rescue Corps (IRC) and fire and rescue teams from Essex, Hampshire and Kent.
The IRC's Willie McMartin said rescuers would have been working since the earthquake to rescue people on the surface of buildings.
"We then go on to look for all the people who are sub-surface, deeply trapped within the structures," he said.
"That's where the specialists come in."
The British Red Cross (BRC) has launched an appeal to raise money for tents, tarpaulins, water containers, kitchen sets and water purification tablets.
Paul Anticoni, head of international aid at BRC, said: "The Iranian Red Crescent are well trained and ready to respond to earthquakes, however due to the massive scale of this disaster they need our help."
'Thoughts and prayers'
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn described the earthquake as a "major catastrophe", but said there survivors could still be found.
He said: "We know from previous disasters that some people have remained trapped under buildings for some days."
Mr Benn said the Iranian authorities were being very helpful and had cleared the British helpers without visas.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke to Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi to express the condolences of the British Government.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of this area who have been affected," he said.
Anyone wanting to donate to the Red Cross appeal can call 0207 245 1000. .
BBC Reports:
Aid teams reach Iran quake zone
The first international specialist rescue teams have begun to arrive in Iran, after pleas from the authorities.
Estimates of the death toll range from 10,000 to 25,000 after a major quake hit the historic city of Bam on Friday.
A number of countries have pledged aid or dispatched rescue teams to the area, including the UK, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Russia.
President Bush said the US was ready to help, and Tehran says it will accept aid from any country except Israel.
Many thousands have been injured in Bam and most of its buildings have been flattened, including two hospitals and the city's historic citadel.
The BBC's Miranda Eeles in Tehran says the concern now is how to rescue those still alive, but buried deep under the rubble.
But there is still some confusion over the death toll, she says, with local officials quoting figures of between 10,000 and 25,000.
Rescue specialist Willie McMartin, of the International Rescue Corps, said about 90% of all casualties were recovered in the first 24 hours.
"We then go in to look for the people who are sub-surface, they're deeply trapped within the structures... that's where the specialists come in."
'A national tragedy'
The only hospitals still functioning in Bam have been overwhelmed by the numbers of injured and many people are being treated in the rubble-strewn streets or taken to other towns for treatment.
Water, electricity and gas supplies have been cut and people had to light fires in the street to keep warm as temperatures plummeted overnight.
Roads leading to the city have become jammed with emergency vehicles and people travelling to find missing relatives.
President Mohammad Khatami described the quake as a "national tragedy" and said it was too huge for Iran to cope with alone.
Dozens of Iranian military planes have been mobilised to evacuate the wounded from the earthquake-hit zone to hospitals in Tehran and other cities.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Bam, says there are scenes of chaos at the airport with a constant stream of wounded being ferried onto planes out of the city.
'US ready to help'
The international Red Cross has launched an appeal for $12.3 million aims to provide assistance to Iran.
The European Union has pledged almost a million dollars in aid to Iran.
The United Nations is sending experts to assess the damage and mobilise international assistance.
The first consignment of UN aid will include tents, blankets, cooking equipment, water purification units and food.
Iranians themselves have responded in large numbers to appeals for blood donations and emergency supplies.
The US has offered humanitarian assistance, despite tense relations with Tehran. US President George W Bush said he was "ready to help".
A number of other countries - including Russia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Pakistan and Spain - have offered to send relief teams and supplies.
They have been joined by offers of cash aid by Australia and medical assistance from Japan.
'I have lost my family'
Bam and the surrounding area is home to more than 200,000 people. About 70% of the houses in Bam have been destroyed, Iranian state television reported.
It is thought many people were crushed as they slept.
There were scenes of intense grief in the city, with people weeping next to corpses shrouded in blankets.
"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," Maryam, 17, told Reuters.
Friday's quake had a magnitude of at least 6.3, according to Iranian sources. The US Geological Survey measured it at 6.7.
Bam - about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south-east of Tehran - was on the Unesco's list of World Heritage Sites.
An important regional centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, it contained many ancient buildings that were not built to withstand earthquakes.
The country suffers frequent earthquakes, with small tremors happening almost daily. In one earthquake in 1990, around 40,000 people died.
Since 1991, tremors have claimed some 17,600 lives and injured 53,000 people, according to official figures.
"I lost my wife in this earthquake... I am very sad but I think Bam's people need international help ", Asghar Ghasemi, Tehran
RECENT IRAN QUAKES
June 2002: more than 200 killed in the western Qasvin and Hamedan regions
May 1997: More than 1,500 killed in eastern Iran
February 1997: about 1,000 killed in north-western Iran
June 1990: About 40,000 died in Iran's worst recorded disaster, affecting Caspian areas of Gilan and Zanjan. About half a million people made homeless
June 1981: More than 1,000 killed in quake that destroyed town of Golbaf
CNN Reports later:
Quake survivors huddle together, wait for light
KERMAN, Iran (AP) --At the city's only cemetery, a crowd of about 1,000 people wailed and beat their chests and heads over some 500 corpses that lay on the ground.
The dead were being buried in mass graves dug by a bulldozer. Mohammed Karimi, in his 30s, took the bodies of his wife and 4-year-old daughter to be buried.
"Last night before she went to sleep she made me a drawing and kissed me four times," he said of his daughter, Nazenine, whom he held in his arms. "When I asked, 'Why four kisses,' she said, 'Maybe I won't see you again, Papa,' " Karimi recounted to an AP photographer, as tears streamed down his face.
Iranian taxi driver Tahmasb Yousefabadi lost 17 family members in the early-morning earthquake that entombed sleeping residents Friday in their mud-brick homes, Reuters reported.
As night fell, the historic city of Bam was without water, gas or electricity.
Bawling infants and dazed adults who escaped the collapse of their homes gathered in city squares, cowered from the piercing cold under woollen blankets.
Survivors built bonfires in the rubble-strewn streets to stay warm as temperatures dropped. Most sat shivering in their nightclothes, as all their possessions were buried in their homes. Night temperatures were expected to drop to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 Fahrenheit).
People lit fires to keep warm and made torches from palm branches for light as they dug with bare hands for survivors.
The dead were piled into the trunks of cars or onto the back seats of vehciles. Workers dug trenches that were hastily filled with corpses.
Streets were packed with frightened survivors, hoping that relief supplies would come soon.
"No-one has come to help us. All we are after is a tent. I feel I could die tonight it's so cold," Yousefabadi, 25, told Reuters.
Ruhollah Bahrami, a shopkeeper, also felt let down: "If this were the West, we would have had plenty of help by now," he told Reuters.
'I have lost all my family'
Roads into Bam were choked with ambulances and cars packed with people desperate to find out whether their relatives were alive.
A woman named Maryam, 17, accepted the ambulances would come too late. "I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," she told Reuters.
Maliheh, a woman of 50, said she had lost her three children and was desperate for a mobile phone to contact family and friends.
Old women beat their heads and smeared their faces with dirt before the corpses of their relations laid out in rows, and state television showed people wailing as their severely injured relatives were taken to Tehran for treatment, according to the news service.
In a hospital in Kerman, about 190 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Bam, several dozens of wounded sat or lay on the floor waiting for treatment.
Rahinah Rahinzadeh, 8, cried to her mother, who was in critical condition next to her, "Oh mom, get up."
Rahinah, who had minor cuts on her face and hands, said her mother covered her to protect her when the quake hit. She does not know what happened to her father.
Shocked Iranians mobilized to help their countrymen.
In Tehran, volunteers jammed a blood donation center. Ministries set up bank accounts to give money, and Fars province asked for donations of blankets and nonperishable food items, and asked all males under 25 to go to neighboring Kerman to help in the relief work, television reported.
In Tehran, state TV showed people lining up to give blood. Bakeries in Shiraz said they would bake bread from dusk until dawn as their contribution to the aid effort, Reuters reported.
CNN Reports:
Aid arrives as quake toll rises
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) --The provisional death toll from a devastating earthquake in southeastern Iran has risen into the tens of thousands as rescue workers continue to scour through the debris for survivors and international aid begins to arrive.
The Interior Ministry says up to 20,000 people died in the quake and at least 30,000 were injured.
However, other government officials say the number of dead is much lower -- likely about 5,000. Others say an accurate casualty count was impossible with many victims still trapped and also the inaccessibility of some areas to rescue crews.
"The disaster is far too huge for us to meet all of our needs," Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said. "However, all the institutions have been mobilized."
The Interior Ministry's death toll estimate, broadcast on state television Saturday, came as rescuers franticly search for life under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
International aid began arriving in the ancient city of Bam on Saturday. An estimated 80 percent of the city, population 80,000, was destroyed in Friday's 6.3 magnitude quake including its hospitals and its main tourist draw, the 2,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam.
The government has asked for international assistance, particularly search and rescue teams. The United States and several European nations have promised aid, which is expected to begin arriving to Bam on Saturday.
As Iran began three days of mourning, tens of thousands of survivors spent Friday night in the streets in bitter cold with temperatures plummeting to below zero degrees Celsius, many of them wearing little more than at the time of the quake.
The historic city was without water, gas or electricity throughout the night. (Survivors try to cope)
On Saturday, rescuers dug with shovels and bare hands to remove bodies and locate possible survivors from the ruins of flattened buildings. Bulldozers worked in some parts of the city.
Bodies, wrapped up in blankets or clothing, were lined up in the streets.
With the city's hospitals destroyed, many of the injured were transported to nearby towns and cities.
Journalist Shrizad Bozorgmehr told CNN that helicopters and C-130 transport planes had been moving thousands of people to neighboring provincial centers such as Kerman and even the capital, Tehran, about 610 miles (975 kilometers) away.
Bozorgmehr said rescue efforts were focusing on two priorities, digging out those trapped and providing temporary shelter and medical assistance to survivors.
Additionally, ruins and rubble brought on by the quake have hampered rescue efforts with little evidence of outside relief reaching the city, he said from Tehran.
Call for help
Turkey, Russia, Spain, Britain and the United States are among the nations that responded to Iran's call for help.
Turkey plans to send "every possible assistance," including "tents, food, medicine -- whatever is needed," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Ankara.
More than 120 Russian emergency and medical officials will head to the disaster scene, along with equipment, a Russian emergency official said.
An aide to Spain's foreign minister said that nation is prepared to send humanitarian aid of various types.
The U.S. government said it is geared up to offer help, with the State Department drawing up a plan.
"We are offering humanitarian assistance," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said aboard Air Force One.
President George W. Bush issued a statement saying that Americans "stand ready to help the people of Iran."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and offered the services of two specialized search-and-rescue teams. Kharrazi welcomed the offer, and arrangements are under way through the Department for International Development, Straw said.
Five Iranian Red Crescent Society emergency relief teams from neighboring provinces have been sent to Bam.
The society has deployed two field hospitals and two helicopters to ferry the severely injured to hospitals as well as provide tents and medical supplies. Local volunteers also are assisting.
"The immediate priority is the search-and-rescue phase -- ensuring that survivors are located, given medical attention and transferred to the hospital," Mostafa Mohaghegh of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a statement.
The U.N. disaster management team in Tehran is sending two groups to the affected area "to collect, verify, and compile information on the extent and impact of the earthquake."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is dispatching a 10-person team to assist in relief coordination. The office said it has made an initial $90,000 grant and is mobilizing 36-40 tons of relief items. These include blankets, kitchen sets, water distribution and purification units, high-energy biscuits and trauma kits.
