Iran Villagers Protest at Lack of Aid

AFP, TurkishPress:

Rescuers pulled out more bodies from the rubble of mountain villages flattened by a powerful earthquake in southeast Iran that claimed some 450 lives and left thousands without shelter.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari told journalists at the scene that the final death toll from the disaster in Kerman province "could reach 550 but not much more than that" and said Iran did not need foreign aid. ...

Angry residents of Islamabad village in one of the most devastated areas blocked roads in protest at the delay in receiving basic aid such as tents and blankets, after spending the night in freezing cold and rain.

About 30,000 people in 40 villages have been affected by the latest temblor, the deadliest in Iran since the Bam earthquake of December 2003 that killed more than 30,000. ...

The quake, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, was the deadliest to rock Iran since December 2003, when more than 30,000 people perished in the ancient city of Bam, 200 kilometres (120 miles) away. ...

Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to violent earthquakes which killed some 170,000 people in about 20 quakes during the 20th century.