Iran schools prepare for possible earthquake

AT RISK: Tehran's 12 million inhabitants live on top of three major seismic faults. (Getty Images)

Students rushed to hide under desks when the earthquake alarm sounded on Saturday at a Tehran school, part of a nationwide drill in Iran, a country criss-crossed with seismological fault lines.

Tehran alone sits on three major faults that could become active any time, one expert said, adding that a magnitude six earthqauke could raze or make uninhabitable more than 80 percent of buildings in the Iranian capital, home to 12 million people.

The city has not been hit by a major earthquake since 1830, but it is 90 percent likely that another one will strike, Bahram Akasheh, a prominent Iranian seismic expert, told Reuters at his office in the foothills of Alborz in northern Tehran.

"In case of a major earthquake, Tehran will be completely crippled for at least a decade. Reconstructing the capital will be impossible," he said. "Millions will be killed and injured."

In the southern Tehran Hazrat-e Zaynab school, students covered their heads in hallways while teachers and aid workers ran to help those with fake blood on their faces and bodies.

Fire-fighters were stationed outside the school, where hallways were covered with posters of safety instructions and lockers were filled with first-aide packages. Tehran is in such a perilous location it should be moved to safer regions, Akasheh said.

"The Alborz mountain area is very active seismologically and the chances of having an earthquake above 6 or 6.5 on the Richter scale, is more than 90 percent".

"Each passing day, the danger becomes more serious. I have repeatedly urged Iranian authorities to relocate Tehran." Akasheh criticised the lack of attention paid to building design regulations and the inadequate supervision by municipalities that had made "building codes in Iran useless".

Monarch Shah Abbas the Great made Isfahan in central Iran his capital in the late 16th century. Government was moved to Tehran in 1788.

Iran became more alert about the potential dangers of earthquakes particularly after a 2003 quake that flattened the desert city of Bam and killed 31,000 people.

Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran. "Teaching people how to respond to a quake would definitely help reduce the number of victims," Akasheh said, adding that organising drills was not enough "to save the city".

Students at Hazrat-e Zaynab school said the drills were "useful and fun". "I am less scared of earthquakes now because I know where I should hide if one strikes," student Elmira Ablou, 13, said. "But I still hope an alarm would also ring before a real earthquake happens."

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