Iran quake search operations to continue: interior ministry

TEHRAN (AFP) Dec 28, 2003
The search for survivors of southeast Iran's devastating earthquake will carry on until rescue teams are certain they can find no more victims alive, the interior ministry spokesman told AFP on Sunday.

"We will not stop the search operations for survivors. So long as there is a chance of finding survivors, these operations will continue," Jahanbakhsh Khanjani said.

He noted that survivors had in the past been found up to four or five days after the disaster in earthquake-prone Iran.

"We will concentrate the operations on places where there is a chance of finding survivors," the spokesman added.

UN humanitarian aid officials in Geneva had said earlier that the search for survivors from Friday's quake in Bam was expected to end Sunday, with the focus turning to the recovery of bodies and assistance for the homeless.

Khanjani confirmed a provisional death toll of 22,000 issued earlier by the Kerman governorate of the earthquake zone, but said the final figure was expected to be higher.

TERRA.WIRE