ZARAND, Iran, Feb 23 (AFP) - Angry villagers hit by a powerful earthquake in southeastern Iran blocked roads Wednesday in protest at the delay in receiving aid after spending the night in freezing cold and rain.
At least 420 people were killed in the earthquake that struck a remote mountainous region of Iran before dawn on Tuesday, turning their mud-brick homes and villages to rubble.
In the Zarand area of Kerman province near the epicentre of the quake which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, villagers were forced to spend the night outdoors without shelter.
A group of about 100 villagers in Islamabad used a truck to block a road and try to intercept humanitarian aid as women threw stones at passing cars, an AFP journalist said.
About 20 men lay down across the road to block the path of Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari's convoy and had to be removed by force, police said.
Whole villages were flattened by the force of the quake, the deadliest since December 2003, when more than 30,000 people perished in the ancient city of Bam, 200 kilometres (120 miles) away.
Hospitals in the region were overwhelmed and officials warned that the casualty toll could rise further as rain and blocked roads made it difficult to reach stricken mountain villages.
Provincial Governor Mohammad Ali Karimi said at least 420 people had been killed and 900 injured.
The head of natural disaster services, Mohammad Javad Fadaie, told AFP there was no "fundamental problem" with the humanitarian and rescue work but conceded there was a lack of tents.
On Tuesday, villagers scrambled to pull bodies from the rubble of their houses, wailing in distress amid roads strewn with debris. Others who had miraculously escaped when their simple mud-brick homes collapsed sat among the debris, ankle deep in mud, wrapped in blankets handed out by dozens of rescue workers, soldiers and volunteers.
Karimi said 40 villages, which are home to more than 30,000 residents, were affected. Half of them were flattened, said the Iranian Red Crescent.
Villagers were buried alive in the mosque in the village of Dahuyeh when the quake struck during pre-dawn prayers, natural disaster services official Mohammad Javad Fadaie told state media.
Only the green dome of the Sultan Seyed Ibrahim mausoleum was left standing.
The governor said the rescue effort was completed by early afternoon Tuesday in most of the affected area, apart from three or four remote villages where rescuers feared the worst.
"We think the death toll will climb to more than 500... once we have gained access to the villages" with the use of helicopters, Iraj Sharifi, head of the Kerman University Hospital, told AFP.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 5:55 am (0225 GMT), with its epicentre located near Zarand some 60 kilometers (35 miles) northwest of the city of Kerman.
Karimi said the authorities had learnt from the Bam experience, when they came in for criticism, and that this time the Islamic republic would not need international aid.
Neighbouring Turkey, which like Iran has long experience of deadly earthquakes, offered to provide aid but was turned down, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
President Pervez Musharraf of neighbouring Pakistan also offered aid.
Several helicopters were sent to the scene, and the government also mobilized two battalions of troops to help in the rescue effort, while residents were urged to stay outdoors amid some 20 aftershocks.
There were no reports of casualties in the city of Kerman, but the quake had knocked out electrical power in the provincial capital.
Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to violent earthquakes which killed some 170,000 people in about 20 quakes during the 20th century.
In 1981, 2,328 people were killed in two earthquakes in Kerman province.
In December 2003, more than 30,000 people were killed when a quake measuring 6.7 points practically razed the city of Bam. Iranian authorities blamed sloppy builders for the immense death toll.
They have also accused foreign governments of failing to deliver on aid pledges made in the immediate aftermath of the Bam quake.

02/23/2005 07:18 GMT - AFP