village hit in quake

State-run television reported there were 20 aftershocks following Friday's quake, including a 4.6-magnitude temblor yesterday morning in the southeastern city of Bam, where a 6.6-magnitude quake in December killed 26,000 people. There were no casualties there yesterday, the report said.

A weak tremor that lasted about five seconds was felt around midday yesterday in the Iranian capital, Tehran, which has a population of about 10 million. Friday's quake was so powerful it cracked or shattered windows in the capital's north, more than 60 miles from the hardest-hit villages.

Out of fear of a greater quake, many people in Tehran slept outdoors, in yards, parks, or in the streets. The government denied widespread speculation about an impending quake.

"Reports of an earthquake in Tehran in the next few hours are false, and circulated by irresponsible people," Ali Jahanbakhshi, an official at Tehran's Emergency Headquarters, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Bijan Dastari, a senior Red Crescent Society official, said 35 people died and 250 were injured in the Friday afternoon earthquake, measured at magnitude 6.2 by the US Geological Survey, that struck northern and central Iran.

Two army helicopters ferried rescue teams into some of the more remote villages early yesterday, the news agency reported. The quake severed road links to about a dozen villages, it said.

The road from Tehran to Chalous was riddled with large cracks, rocks, and giant boulders, as well as cars that either were completely smashed or badly damaged by boulders. Crushed cars were being cleared by trailer trucks.

One driver barely squeezed into his car, whose rear side and passenger compartment were crushed, and slowly drove it away.

Fattollah Najafi, the 60-year-old owner of a roadside restaurant, said he felt the tremor, then saw boulders rolling down the mountain.

"All of a sudden, I saw the restaurant was shaking all over the place," Najafi said. "There were cars crashing into the mountain or into each other, and some were crushed by the boulders.

"One car that was hit by a boulder exploded into flames, and as far as I know everyone in it was killed," he said.

The Red Crescent dispatched rescue teams with body-detecting dogs as well as medical teams, tents, and lanterns to the stricken areas, the news agency reported. It quoted officials as saying about 50 villages were shaken by Friday's quake.

The villages hit hardest were near Alamout, about 80 miles west of Tehran, an Interior Ministry spokesman, Jahanbakhah Khanjani, said Friday.

Sixteen people were buried in their cars and more than 70 others were injured by landslides and falling boulders on the mountainous Tehran-Chalous road, state-run television reported. Chalous is 55 miles north of Tehran.

Tehran University's seismological center said the quake had a 5.5 magnitude with an epicenter in the village of Baladeh, 45 miles northeast of Tehran, near the Caspian Sea.