DUBAI – Two powerful earthquakes killed 250 people and injured around 1,800 in northwest Iran, where rescue workers frantically combed the rubble of dozens of villages throughout the night and into Sunday as medical staff desperately tried to save lives. Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the streets after Saturday's quakes in fear of more aftershocks, 40 of which have already struck. Casualty figures are expected to rise, Iranian officials said, as some of the injured were in critical condition while others were still trapped under the rubble inaccessible to rescue workers hampered by darkness in the first hours after the quakes. Six villages were destroyed and about 60 sustained more than 50 percent damage, Iranian media reported. About 110 villages were damaged in the quakes, Deputy Interior Minister Hassan Ghadami was quoted by Fars as saying. The second quake struck near the town of Varzaghan. “The quake was so intense that people poured into the streets through fear,” said the news agency Fars. Hundreds of people were rescued from under the rubble of collapsed buildings but nightfall severely disrupted emergency efforts. “Unfortunately there are still a number of people trapped in the rubble but finding them is very difficult because of the darkness,” Fars quoted the national emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi as saying. IRNA quoted Bahram Samadirad, a provincial official from the coroner's office, as saying: “Since some people are in a critical condition ... it is possible for the number of casualties to rise.” Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar has arrived in the area and was holding meetings with local officials meant to coordinate the emergency response, ISNA reported. – Reuters
