AFP,
TEHRAN : Some 28,000 corpses have been pulled out of the rubble and buried after the devastating earthquake in and around Bam, in southeastern Iran, state radio reported quoting local government officials.
The previous toll, given by officials in Kerman province, stood at 25,000 recovered bodies following Friday's quake which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale.
A local governorate official has estimated that the final toll will top 30,000.
Only 2,000 people have been pulled out alive from the rubble and the main rescue effort has given way to a body recovery and clean-up operation.
President Mohammad Khatami has promised to reconstruct Bam in two years, state radio reported Tuesday.
Hundreds of mechanical diggers rolled into the quake-hit city of Bam in southeast Iran, signalling the end of major efforts to find survivors.
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, as Iran's top leadership visited Bam for the first time since Friday's quake.
A UN official warned that even a common cold or influenza could prove fatal as tens of thousands prepared to spend another night in freezing temperatures and minimal shelter.
“When we talk about a public health problem we are talking about the risk of a massive outbreak of all kinds of illnesses and diseases,” Hamid Marashi, Iran communications officer for the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, told AFP.
Residents were “very vulnerable because they are sleeping out in very cold temperatures”, Marashi said. “Another risk is that of dysentery because of the poor sanitary environment.”
Iranian authorities said electricity had been restored in 80 percent of Bam's streets as victims settled down for the night, camping outside their ruined homes in tents handed out by aid workers.
The body recovery operation only appeared to have covered a small proportion of the city, which was at the epicentre of the devastating quake that measured 6.7 on the Richter scale.
Mohammad Ehsani, a surgeon working in the Imam Khomeini hospital, said: “I think we can say that the search for survivors has ended. The main objective now is to take care of the wounded, get shelter, food and water to the survivors and to bury the dead as quickly and as urgently as possible.
“All they have been pulling out from the rubble for the last two days have been dead bodies.”
Khatami and several government ministers flew to Bam to inspect damage and rescue work.
His visit followed one earlier in the day by the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who spent three hours in the town.
“Whatever we do, it will still be too little,” Khatami said. “Hopefully, as time goes by more aid will arrive.”
Earlier, Khamenei, accompanied by dozens of bodyguards, also toured the centre of town and its 2,000-year-old citadel which was flattened by the quake.
“We share your pain, we have lost our own children, we are going to try to rebuild Bam, but this time more solidly,” Khamenei told survivors.
Police and soldiers were deployed in force throughout Bam after looters attacked convoys bringing in essential supplies.
“The security situation has much improved with the arrival in town of a large number of police and soldiers,” said policeman Ali Chehrazi.
Hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers, elite Revolutionary Guards and Bassiji volunteer militiamen, touting Kalashnikov rifles and automatic pistols, patrolled the streets or stood guard at key intersections.
This followed a day of looting, attributed by some to villagers from outlying areas spared by the earthquake, of badly needed humanitarian supplies.
At Bam airport, planeloads of foreign aid continued to arrive, but German rescue teams were preparing to return home Tuesday because there was little hope of finding further survivors.
The first US flight to Iran since the Tehran hostage crisis ended in 1981, carrying emergency aid to Bam, will be followed by more, the US Air Force combined air operation centre in the Gulf state of Qatar said.
Colonel Bret Klassen, a US Air Force logistician, said: “I think it's a great opportunity to open up dialogue. It's unfortunate that it's under these circumstances with such a large loss of life.”
However in Washington, State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said: “There is no political angle here.”
Meanwhile, finance and economy ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council states held an extraordinary meeting in Riyadh on Monday night to coordinate sending more aid to Bam's earthquake victims.
The United Nations, whose agencies have already pledged about half a million dollars to fund relief efforts, said that cash donations were desperately needed.
“So far the response has been swift and generous,” said Rashid Khalikov, deputy director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
But “we need much more,” he said in Geneva, declining to give an approximate sum.
Representatives from donor countries, including the United States, the European Union and Norway, met in Geneva with UN aid agencies and Red Cross officials to discuss the disaster and how best to respond, Khalikov told reporters.
Even cash-strapped neighbouring Afghanistan has donated 150,000 dollars, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said in Kabul.
