Almost 400 Dead in Iran Quake

An earthquake registering 6.4 on the Richter scale hit a province in southeast Iran early Tuesday morning, destroying villages and killing almost 400 people. The centre of the quake, which hit at 5;55 a.m.(local time), was in the town of Zarand, 440 miles southeast of the capital.Villages suffered extensive damages, however the big settlements got away with minimum ruin. Officials are not expecting the toll to be as high as the devastating Bam quake of December 2003 where 31,000 people died. Ali Komsari, a spokesman for the Kerman provincial governor's office said, "Figures we have show that in the early hours more than 1,000 were injured and almost 400 killed."Â