Death toll rising in northern Iran quake

Villagers look on and pray for the wrapped body of a victim following an earthquake that destroyed the Iranian village of Changoleh.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Hundreds of people were killed or injured as an earthquake and a series of aftershocks rocked northern Iran Saturday, Iranian media reports said.

In Boinzahra, a town in Qazvin province, at least 500 people have been killed and at least 1,500 have been injured, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, a TV network.

IRNA said some 60 villages around Avaj had been razed to the ground or lost at least half of their buildings, with a pair of early strong aftershocks inflicting more damage.

The Red Crescent, which mobilized to aid the residents of the region, expects more casualties, news reports said.

The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said the quake's magnitude was 6.3.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Lisa Mirando has more on a powerful earthquake that hit Northwestern Iran and has caused hundreds of deaths (June 22) Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Images from the Iran earthquake  • Flash animation: Major earthquakes of 20th century  • Timeline: Major earthquakes in last 20 years     MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater

Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado in the United States said the quake took place at 7:28 a.m. local time.

He said the epicenter of the quake was between the cities of Hamadan and Qazvin, around 220 kilometers (140 miles) west of Tehran, and that the terrain in the region is mountainous and has many villages.

Major aftershocks, infrastructure devastated

Major aftershocks were reported for hours after the main quake.

Bou'in-Zahra Gov. Ali Mousavi said the quake devastated the villages' water and power infrastructure, IRNA reported, according to The Associated Press.

Buildings in the region are made of mud and are very susceptible to this type of natural catastrophe.

"Usually with this kind of building we lose a lot of people," Professor Fariborz Nateghi, a government advisor on earthquake engineering, told the Reuters news agency. "You lose the walls and the ceiling collapses. They are major killers."

IRNA was quoted by Reuters as saying 80 people had been killed in one village alone near Avaj, a town of 3,600 people close to the top of a high pass through the rugged Nobaran Mountains.

Iranian military forces have airdropped blankets, food, and medicine to people in the region and are helping residents set up shelters.

Iran lies on a major seismic line and is prone to quakes. Moderate tremors are reported in various parts of the country almost daily.

President Bush, in a written statement Saturday, said he was "saddened" to learn about the "tragic event" and sent his condolences to the families of the victims.

"Human suffering knows no political boundaries," Bush said, extending a hand to a country he has labeled part of an "axis of evil."

A woman carries supplies in Abdareh village, which was destroyed by an earthquake that killed more than 50 in the village.

"We stand ready to assist the people of Iran as needed and as desired," the president said.

Earthquakes in northern Iran -- where the Arabian tectonic plate, pushed northward by the African plate, collides with the Eurasian plate -- tend to be especially strong.

A June 1990, magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered near the Caspian Sea, destroyed three cities and more than 700 villages, killing 40,000 people. Another quake of about the same magnitude in the same area nearly 30 years earlier killed 12,000 people.

President Mohammad Khatami issued a message of condolence to the Iranian nation, AP reports, quoting local television.

Khatami also instructed the Interior Ministry to cooperate with other agencies to act quickly in offering assistance to the victims. Three days of mourning have also been declared in the provinces, according to the same report.