One giant heave, and the town turned into a graveyard. Eye-witness

The shock demolished mud-walled houses and brick structures alike. It is estimated that just 2,000 of the 13,000 inhabitants of Tabas are still alive.

Doctors killed

An eye-witness and survivor described the scene. "One giant heave, and the town turned into a graveyard. All that is left are thousands of bodies, mounds of ruins and hundreds of dazed survivors," he said.

It is reported that all the town's doctors perished.

More than 700 soldiers have been drafted in to help with the relief operations and medical teams, field hospitals, food and other supplies are being flown in.

Water and electricity supplies have been cut and all communication lines into Tabas have also been destroyed. Water is being brought in from Mashad, nine hours' drive away.

Survivors and aid workers on the ground have appealed for international assistance.

Local people are frantically pulling bodies from the rubble and taking them to the cemetery but aid workers have already warned of disease and infection.

The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, has announced three days of national mourning.

The last major earthquake to strike Iran was in 1962 when 10,000 people were killed in the north-west region of the country.

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