Aug 12 - Two earthquakes in Iran k!ll 300 and injure 5,000

DUBAI (Reuters) - Overcrowded hospitals in northwest Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes k!lled nearly 300 people.

Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday's quakes for fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters.

"I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock k!lled," Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. "People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread."

The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported.

Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was k!lled and his body found.

"Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters," aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. "We fear that if rescuers don't get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they're still alive."

But Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.

Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated.

"I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn't safe enough," Ahmad said. "People in those villages need help."

Abbas Falahi, member of parliament for Ahar and Harees, said people in some villages were still "in dire need of food and drinking water", the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

"Despite the promises of officials, little first aide has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents. If the situation continues, the toll will rise," he said.

Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances.

Ahar's 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student in the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road to Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.

VILLAGES DESTROYED

"People are scared and won't go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren't safe."

The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday's first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran's oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.

The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz.

More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji'i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said.

"We saw some villages that were truly destroyed," said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. "One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse."

Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar's local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.

Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji'i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji'i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort.

Tehran officials sent condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning in the province, ISNA reported.

About 36,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Masoumi was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the [rip] toll would swiftly rise.

"Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away," he told ISNA. "Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air."

COLLAPSED BUILDINGS

Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble - some alive, many dead.

Twenty-eight year old Narges in Tehran said she saw dozens of people in a hospital waiting to donate blood for the victims.

Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and k!lled about 31,000 people.

Saturday's quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been k!lled or hurt.

Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.

Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.

Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. "Everyone was scared last night," a resident said by telephone. "They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks."

(Additional reporting by Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming)

That is just HAARP finally being used as a weapon

soon as israel say they will attack before election BOOM!!!! earthquake!!!


try not to believe in haarp but come on

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inb4loonytoonconspiracytheorist


ohhh to late [pic]

And there's already a damn thread on this.[pic]

[pic] Yup they using that !! all the time now. And people wondering why summers and winters are all !!ed up.

We actually have retards on this forum who think the U.S. actually employs weather machines like this on some Cobra Commander !!...



Jesus !!ing Christ....

Someone school me on HAARP

fear of god in you motha!!as

So the earth can't just have a quake now? You know? Those things that have been happening since...well...forever? It's not possible that maybe, JUST MAYBE, that there were actually earth quakes caused by...EARTH? OMG SAY IT AIN'T SO!

i only came in this thread because i was 100% sure someone would mention HAARP. I can leave satisfied.

yuuuuuuugggghh

HAARP may seem far fetched for people who laugh at conspiracy theorists( me being one of them) but the technology behind HAARP makes it scientifically possible to shift tectonic plates at a desired location, do your research before laughing at the idea people.

It's just a earthquake in a !!ed up place who cares

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Cloud Seeding

What are you clapping for !! boi, innocent people were k!lled.

Whitey,

HAARP

I got you.

USA is responsible for creating HAARP, which is actually two machines. One created a tiny unicorn(1st ever) and another that rapidly clones using unicorn stem cells. They where also genetically engineered to eat and survive from eating fault line dust that forms around old fault lines and dusty tectonic plates.

The Unicorns are usually sent in 10 squads of 12. They are so fast you rarely see them.Once released, there is no turning back. They start viciously devouring the fault line dust until the plates slip and cause an earthquake k!lling them in the process.

Ever wonder how hot food and liquids cool off? Well wonder no more. Its little invisible guys pouring buckets of cold