IRAN QUAKE WRECKS BUILDINGS, DEATH TOLL 'VERY HIGH'
State television said about 60 per cent of the buildings in Bam, a popular tourist attraction some 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, had collapsed in the earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale.
"There is a lot of dead and injured in Bam city and all the cooperation has been done to take them out," said Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province.
No official estimates of the number of dead or injured were available as the government mounted a major rescue operation in Bam, famed for its citadel and other centuries-old buildings.
The quake struck at about 5:30 a.m. local time when most people in the city would probably have been asleep in their homes.
"There was a lot of damage in (Bam)," Karimi said, adding that a crisis headquarters had been set up to deal with the situation.
State media said a lot of people were "buried" under debris in Bam and issued appeals for people to donate blood.
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