Girl found alive in Iran; 3 men defy death

BAM, Iran — As search crews despaired of finding more survivors from Iran's devastating earthquake, Monday brought moments of hope: Rescuers pulled a girl out alive from the rubble of her caved-in house, and three men believed dead stirred in their white burial shrouds.

More than 25,000 bodies have been retrieved since Friday's 6.6-magnitude quake shook the ancient city of Bam and its surrounding region in southeast Iran, according to provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh. At least 10,000 people were believed injured.

Two aftershocks in Bam early Monday terrified survivors and toppled some of the few walls still standing in the city, already turned into a moonscape of flattened houses. Later, Iran's president and supreme leader made their first visits, three days after the quake.

There were fears the number of dead could rise as high as 40,000 as Bam on Monday passed the critical mark of 72 hours after the quake, the longest period people are expected to survive in rubble.

Occasionally, people last longer if they are trapped in a pocket with air to breathe, though Bam's traditional architecture sharply limited that possibility. The city's mud-brick houses, constructed without supporting metal or wooden beams, crumbled into small chunks and powder-like dust.

"Many, many more people remain buried under the rubble," the government spokesman said.

International rescue teams joined Iranian crews in probing the wreckage, listening for tapping sounds from anyone trapped below and monitoring reactions of sniffer dogs. Some teams prepared to leave Tuesday, but others vowed to stay.

"It's never too late. We'll continue," said Terje Engevik, a member of the Norwegian search crew.

"There have been miracles in earthquakes before, in other cities, in other countries, and so we must continue searching," a spokesman for French rescuers, Eric Soupra, told France's RTL radio.

In a reward for such perseverance, an Iranian relief worker described how people approached him about a house that had not been searched. Using an electronic device, Shokrollah Abbasi and three colleagues found a girl — unconscious and with a broken leg.

"The only reason she remained alive was because the roof had not totally collapsed," Abbasi said. "There was air for her to breathe. We found her in the kitchen. There was a plate of rice near her, and it appeared to me that the food had helped her remain alive."