February 23, 2005 - 4:30 AM

Scared Iran quake survivors in the cold

By Parisa Hafezi

ZARAND, Iran (Reuters) - Frightened of aftershocks and shivering from cold, thousands of Iranians spent the night in tents
and temporary shelters after a powerful earthquake struck southeast Iran, killing at least 420 people.

Tuesday's quake, with a magnitude of 6.4, flattened several villages near the town of Zarand, 700 km (440 miles) southeast
of Tehran, reviving painful memories of the tremor that levelled the nearby city of Bam 14 months ago, killing 31,000 people.

In the small town of Khanouk, close to Zarand, 100 men, women and children abandoned their shattered homes to sleep
rough on the floor of the town's main mosque, which was little damaged by the tremor.

"Please help us, it's winter. What are we to do?" wailed an elderly man who gave only his first name, Ali.

Elsewhere in the town, deluged by cold, driving rain, people took refuge where they could. One family of four settled down to
sleep in a white pick-up truck. Another group took over a minibus.

Others huddled around camp fires or erected tents in front of the rubble of their destroyed homes.

"Our children are so scared they don't even want to go inside the tents," said taxi driver Gholamreza Asadi, 45.

Next to him sat his drained-looking wife, Sedigeh, dressed in the traditional head-to-foot black chador.

The shock of the quake forced two months pregnant Sedigeh to have a miscarriage.

"I think this must have been God's gift to us before the New Year," she said sarcastically. The Iranian New Year is celebrated
on March 21.

U.S. OFFERS HELP

Despite accusations by Washington that Iran supports terrorism and is secretly building nuclear arms, U.S. State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was willing to offer Iran help with the relief effort.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also said the United Nations was ready to assist.

But Iran has so far said it does not need foreign assistance and local officials said thousands of tents and tonnes of blankets
and food have been distributed.

"We have done everything to make sure that people will not spend the night in the open air in the quake-stricken areas,"
Kerman province Governor Ali Karimi told state television.

He acknowledged, however, that relief teams had struggled to reach at least five remote villages in the rugged, rain-soaked
mountains.

Karimi put the death toll at 420 but said that would probably rise. Aid and medical workers had treated about 900 injured
people, he said.

Many in Khanouk, however, complained aid had not arrived.

"There's been no help at all. I myself pulled six people out of the rubble, four of whom were dead," said Mehdi Assadi, who,
like many residents, was guarding the remains of his shattered home while his family slept at the mosque.

"We have nothing to eat or drink," he said.

Geological experts said the depth of the earthquake below ground, and the fact it was centred on a sparsely populated area,
prevented a repeat of the heavy death toll which occurred in Bam.