Quake survivors survey devastation

The earthquake has been described as a national tragedy

Survivors of the earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam have been describing the widespread destruction and suffering they have seen.

They witnessed terrible scenes, as thousands were injured or crushed to death, many of them still in their beds, when the quake struck in the early morning.

Rescue crews dug through the night, grasping for people still buried in the rubble.

People made fires to keep warm as temperatures dropped and lit palm tree leaves for light.

Iranian taxi driver Tahmasb Yousefabadi, 25, lost 17 family members during the earthquake.

"No-one has come to help us, all we are after is a tent. I feel I could die tonight it's so cold," he said.

"It puts you in shock. I cried, I was not able to talk. People buried, parents buried under the house and the children were shouting for somebody to come and help them," said another survivor.

Corpses

Crouching under blankets, survivors are waiting in the streets hoping that relief supplies will come soon.

"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," said Maryam, 17.

I was trapped beneath the debris for five hours. My back is broken. I have lost nine members of my family Survivor

A Turkish TV journalist on the scene said Bam looked as if it had been hit by a bomb.

The dead have been piled onto the back seats of cars or into trucks.

The injured - sometimes on drips - are laid out on the pavements.

One man said the sheer numbers of injured would be a problem, in a city where two hospitals had been completely destroyed.

If this were the West, we would have had plenty of help by now Ruhollah Bahrami, a shopkeeper

"They must come and take the patients away," he said. "The patients are on our hands. What are we going to do with them?"

"I was trapped beneath the debris for five hours. My back is broken. I have lost nine members of my family," one hospital patient told Iranian television's News Channel.

"My mother and father died and now I am left alone. I saw their dead bodies... I had a sister, but she died too," said a young boy in the hospital.

Local people are concerned about the large numbers of corpses in the city.

"If this were the West, we would have had plenty of help by now," Ruhollah Bahrami, a shopkeeper said.

Roads into Bam have been congested with ambulances and cars packed with people desperate to find out whether their relatives survived the tremor.

Men and women can be seen slapping their own faces and beating their chests - an Islamic ritual of mourning.