A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| 20,000 killed, 50,000 Injured |
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| BroHanif |
| 12/26/03 at 18:27:06 |
| http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-12/26/article01.shtml Salaams, If anyone knows any relief agencies that are taking money please let me know. May Allah give strength to our brothers and siters in Iran at this difficult time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20,000 Killed, 50,000 Injured In Iran Quake: Officials Soldiers search for bodies in Bam city PARIS, December 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - More than 20,000 people were killed and 50,000 injured in the shattering earthquake that rocked the southeastern Iranian city of Bam on Friday, December 26, government officials said. The Kerman province governor’s office said that the death toll of the devastating quake rose to 20,000, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. A government official confirmed the news, telling Reuters that “rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than 20,000”. While Al-Jazeera correspondent said on air that 30,000 people could have lost their lives and 50,000 escaped with injuries. State television had earlier said 4,000 people had died and that another 30,000 were injured. "Unfortunately, 4,000 of our compatriots were killed in Bam and at least 30,000 others were injured," the broadcast said, announcing a three-day period of mourning in Kerman province, home to the devastated city. State media and authorities have aired urgent appeals for blood donations, blankets, food and clothes to help the victims of the quake, measuring 6.3 at the Richter Scale. The television broadcast footage from Tehran hospitals, crowded with hundreds of Iranians volunteering to give blood to help the thousands of injured. The fort city of Bam, situated about 1000 kilometers south-east from the capital Tehran, is renowned for its 2,000-year-old citadel Arg-e-Bam, before the temblor the world's largest mud-brick structure. Around two thirds of homes in the fort of Bam and the surrounding villages were entirely or partially destroyed in the pre-dawn quake, Karem governor Mohammad Ali Karimi said. An AFP correspondent on the scene saw dozens of bodies in the streets of the city, which is almost made entirely built of mud brick ill-equipped to withstand a big quake. Under Ruins An AFP graphic Funerals have already been held for 500 of the dead in accordance with the Islamic requirement for a swift burial, state television reported. Bereaved residents wandered the streets pleading for the authorities to speed up rescue efforts. "Seventeen of my relatives are buried under the ruins of my home, they've got to get a move on or all of them will die," said one, who gave his name only as Ali, as he attempted to shift the rubble with a spade. Telephone and radio communications with the city, as well as the towns of Giroft and Kohnuj, were cut off following the quake. The government has set up a crisis center in Kerman and dispatched five helicopters and two huge C-130 transport planes to the quake site, the official IRNA news agency quoted deputy provincial governor Hossein Marachi as saying. Neighboring provinces have also been called upon to provide aid, rescue equipment, blankets and medicines, he said. The Iranian authorities have urged the population not to leave the disaster zone unless seeking urgent medical assistance, public radio reported. The Strasbourg Observatory in France said the quake was the most powerful in the region since 1998. Quakes are very frequent in Iran. Since 1991 nearly 1,000 tremors have claimed some 17,600 lives and injured 53,000 people, according to official figures. On August 27, a tremor of 5.7 jolted the Bam area, but caused no casualties. The last major quake came in June, 2002, when a tremor of 6.3 hit northwestern Iran, killing 235 people and wounding more than 1,300. In June 1990, 40,000 were killed in Gilan and Zanjan provinces, in a massive tremor measuring 7.7. International Help Dozens of bodies were strewn in the streets of the city Iran appealed for international aid, particularly sniffer dogs and equipment to search for bodies amid the rubble. "We need sniffer dogs and detection equipment, blankets, medicines, food, but also prefabricated houses because winter is coming very quickly," said a statement from the interior ministry. The ministry's department responsible for natural disasters asked Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to ask international organizations and governments for aid. European countries immediately offered assistance and Germany, Belgium and Greece were among the first to respond. In a letter to President Khatami, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said his country would "make every effort within the limit of its possibilities to place at Iran's disposition all necessary humanitarian aid." Greece said it would send 250,000 euros in aid and was preparing teams of rescuers to help Iran. "A team of 25 men is ready to leave," said Andreas Loverdos, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. "We are awaiting the green light from the Iranian government on what sort of materials we should send them." Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said his officials already had been on contact with Iranian authorities to establish what assistance was needed. Michel summoned a crisis group called B-fast, a specialized unit to deal with crises abroad. The cell was set up after the Turkish earthquakes that took the lives of more than 20,000 people in 1999. Meanwhile, two experts from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will leave Switzerland later in the day. Four more experts were due to fly out on Saturday, December 27, OCHA spokeswoman Madeleine Moulin said. "In response to the earthquake in Iran, the U.N. released an emergency grant of 90,000 dollars and sent a team of experts to assess the damage, and to mobilize and coordinate international assistance," she told AFP. |
| 12/26/03 at 18:35:09 |
| BroHanif |
| Re: 20,000 killed, 50,000 Injured |
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| Saffiyah |
| 12/26/03 at 20:05:52 |
| Inna lillahi wa inna illahi rajioon I saw reports in the morning saying 4,000 killed and the next time I checked it had gone up to 20,000. SubhanaAllah I am sure there will be many agencies that you will be able to donate money to inshaAllah. I know the number for Islamic Relief is 0845 444 3132 or you can donate online http://www.islamic-relief.com/Uk/index.htm |
| Dead mother's embrace saves Iranian baby's life |
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| jannah |
| 12/29/03 at 23:49:31 |
| [slm] There's many places posted in the Bebzi.. Just wanted to share this story: Dead mother's embrace saves Iranian baby's life A baby girl cradled in her dead mother's arms was rescued alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Bam on Monday -- a rare moment of joy amid the devastation of Iran's worst earthquake for years. But rescuers were witness more to the fragility of human life when one seven-year-old boy was found alive but suffocated as people rushed forward to dig him free. The six-month-old baby girl, named Nassin, was found in remarkably good health 72 hours after the earthquake destroyed her family's house on Friday, Red Crescent aid officials told Reuters. They said her mother's protective embrace had shielded the child from falling debris and saved her life. The rest of the infant's family was found dead under the rubble. "We found her this morning wrapped in her mother's arms. She was in good health," a senior Red Crescent Society official in charge of rescue operations in the provincial capital of Kerman told Reuters. Bam is situated in Kerman province. The world's most lethal quake in at least 10 years, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, laid waste most of Bam's mud brick buildings in seconds. Officials have warned the death toll could reach 30,000. Caught in their sleep by the quake, many children were killed with their families. Nassin had survived trapped in the rubble despite bitterly cold nights and nothing to drink. On Saturday night, an Austrian rescue team with sniffer dogs found the seven-year-old boy alive under the rubble of another collapsed building but died soon afterwards. "We found a seven-year-old boy alive," said Austrian rescue worker Sabine Seichtinger. "The crowd rushed to the scene. But the boy choked and then died." |
| Re: 20,000 killed, 50,000 Injured |
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| buL-buL |
| 12/30/03 at 01:11:01 |
| [slm] one relief agency that i found: http://www.islamicaid.org.uk/index.html |
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