News, December 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
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Rescue Workers Give Up
Agencies, Arab News
BAM, Iran, 30 December 2003 — Hundreds of mechanical diggers rolled into the quake-hit city of Bam in southeast Iran yesterday, signaling the end of major efforts to find survivors as officials said the death toll was approaching 30,000.
One international search team called off its rescue efforts, saying there could be no more survivors, but a young girl of about 12 was found alive in the rubble of her house in the morning.
Germany’s THW government aid agency has called off its search for survivors of the earthquake, spokesman Nicolas Hefner said. He said there were no longer any signals such as knocking sounds to be heard, and no more indications from local people of possible survivors. The team had not found any survivors and was returning to Germany today.
But Eric Soupra, spokesman for the French team, said rescuers must continue searching despite the fading chances of finding survivors.
A team of 28 Polish rescuers with dogs have found 17 bodies and no survivors in over 24 hours of searching, spokesman Witold Maziarz said. “If nothing happens, the search will be canceled, most probably tomorrow,” Maziarz said.
The bodies of 25,000 victims have already been buried, some 19,500 by municipal workers in Bam alone and the rest by local people in surrounding areas, state radio said, quoting an official.
Attention turned to the grim task of recovering thousands of corpses from the rubble and burying the dead amid growing fears for the health of survivors.
The body recovery operation only appeared to have covered a small proportion of the city, which was at the epicenter of the devastating quake.
Iran’s top leadership visited Bam for the first time since Friday’s quake. “We share your sorrow, those lost are our children. We will rebuild Bam stronger than before,” he said.
President Mohammad Khatami also arrived in Bam to see the devastation which many have blamed on poor government planning and shoddy building standards.
“The scale of the catastrophe is so big that whatever has been done is not sufficient,” he told reporters. “I hope more and more aid will arrive in coming hours.”
A UN official warned that even a common cold or influenza could prove fatal as tens of thousands spent another night in freezing temperatures and minimal shelter.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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