'We are afraid to get back home'

Borujerd, Iran: Survivors of the powerful earthquake were using whatever tools were available to dig up loved ones and belongings.

At least 70 people were killed before dawn yesterday, as the quake wiped out villages and sent panicked residents fleeing from their homes.

Another 1,246 people were injured in the quake in the province of Lorestan with a force of 6.0 on the Richter scale, Lorestan provincial governor Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani was quoted as saying on state television.

The Borujerd area was hit hardest. The left 45 people dead there and another 1,025 people injured.

"The successive aftershocks are still keeping the people in the streets. The search and rescue is going on, and people are waiting to receive their tents, blankets, and food," an AFP photographer in Borujerd area said.

"We stayed outside after the second tremor, but 14 of my relatives went inside since they could not tolerate the cold weather and some of them wanted to get ready for the morning prayers," 58-year-old Akram Jafari said, wiping dirt mixed with tears from her face.

"I kept telling them to wait more," she said, unable to continue as she sobbed, and was consoled by other relatives who were ejected from neighbouring areas in Lorestan province.

"We are afraid to get back home. I spent the night with my family and guests in open space last night," Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri said.

Iranian Interior Minister Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi told state news agency IRNA that he did not expect any major rise in the number of the casualties.

"Since people were warned before by two smaller quakes, I do not expect the number of dead to surpass 80 people," he said.

"The rescue mission will soon be over, and we hope to furnish the survivors with the tents and the blankets that have been sent before nightfall," Pour-Mohammadi added.

Television footage showed survivors in some of the worst affected areas between the cities of Doroud and Borujerd digging through the rubble of their mud-brick homes.

About 330 villages suffered 40 to 100 per cent damage, Mohseni Sani was quoted as saying on state television.

State television also reported that rescue workers have been sent to the most devastated areas in the province near the border with Iraq.

It said the priority for the moment remained search and rescue, adding it had deployed two helicopters and another was on its way. The aircrafts' main task was to evacuate the injured to hospitals. Survivors are in urgent need of food, blankets and medical supplies, interior ministry public relations director Mojtaba Mir-Abdollahi told AFP, but said there was "no need for international aid."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered humanitarian aid to the victims.

"The United States is always prepared to help with humanitarian assistance anywhere in the world when these kinds of difficulties are faced by a population," Rice said.

"Currently the hospitals of the province are packed with injured, and the wounded are now being sent to neighbouring provinces," Mir-Abdollahi said.

Officials recalled on doctors and nurses from vacation to help treat the injured. Iranians are celebrating Nowruz and most government offices are closed.