and food,” Interior Minister Moustafa Mohammad-Najjar told state television.
The first of the earthquakes registered a strong 6.4 on the moment magnitude scale, according to the US Geological Survey, which monitors seismic activity worldwide.
The second, almost as strong at 6.3 on the scale, rumbled through and food,” Interior Minister Moustafa Mohammad-Najjar told state television.
The first of the earthquakes registered a strong 6.4 on the moment magnitude scale, according to the US Geological Survey, which monitors seismic activity worldwide.
The second, almost as strong at 6.3 on the scale, rumbled through just 11 minutes later.
While the biggest city in the region, Tabriz, and nearby towns escaped with only relatively minor damage, scores of outlying villages made of more flimsy mud and concrete bricks were decimated.
Mohammad-Najjar said around half the 600 villages located in the zone were damaged or destroyed.
He said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had given orders on Sunday for home reconstruction to begin immediately because of the harsh winter the region will experience at the end of the year.
An estimated 16,000 people were left homeless by the quakes. Red Crescent trucks carrying thousands of tents were seen plying the roads in the area that were still congested with ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs also yesterday said it has yet to receive an initial report from the  embassy officials in Tehran regarding the Filipinos who may be affected by the two powerful earthquakes.
But Foreign Affairs Secretary Raul Hernandez said the department was still monitoring the situation of the almost 1,000 overseas Filipino workers in Iran.
Emergency workers from 14 provinces around Iran arrived to help overnight, drawing on services and resources built up through the country’s long experience in dealing with seismic instability.
Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.
The deadliest was a 6.6-magnitude quake which struck the southeastern city of Bam in December 2003, killing 31,000 people — about a quarter of the population — and destroying the city’s ancient mud-built citadel.
Even into Sunday, the earth trembled from time to time from one of more than 50 aftershocks, jarring the nerves of those who had spent a terrified night sleeping in the open.
The rapid rescue operation highlighted the fact that in the villages residents knew each other well and knew where to look, and collapsed