Switzerland Sends Water Purifying Equipment for Iran's Flood-Hit People

"The water purifiers weighing one ton will arrive in Iran on Saturday night and will be delivered to the Iranian Red Crescent Society," Swiss Foreign Ministry office for development and cooperation said.

Iranian Ambassador to Bern Mohammad Reza Haji Karim Jabbari has received the equipment and the related documents from Swiss Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Several foreign dignitaries, including Head of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of the Vatican City State Pope Francis as well as ambassadors of the UK, Norway, Austria and the UN Information Center (UNIC) in separate messages have already expressed their condolences over the deadly incident.

According to the forensics officials, the recent floods across Iran have left 62 people dead so far.

The tragedy started in the four Northern provinces of Mazandaran, Golestan, Semnan and North Khorassan on March 20. Thirty provinces of Iran have been hit by severe weather conditions since then.

Over 56,000 people were affected in various cities and rural areas in Golestan and Mazandaran as a result of heavy rainfall that hit the two provinces on March 19 and 20.

While the nation was shocked by the casualties and magnitude of destructions in the Northern regions of the country, another round of floods hit the country in the Western and Southwestern provinces on March 25.

The most shocking images were relayed from Shiraz, a very popular tourist destination homing historical monuments from ancient times to the present age, where the Northern opening gate of the city witnessed a tragic pileup of cars swept away by a flash flood.

The Gate of Quran has been built on a dry river bed and ten minutes after the start of sudden torrential rains at around 11:00 am local time on March 25 more than 50 cars were washed away to the down of the slope into the city. Hitting trees and other streets signs and curbs the overrun cars piled up one another a kilometer down from the city gate.

Families, many from other cities and provinces visiting Shiraz for New Year holidays, trapped inside and stranded between the cars were the main victims.

Governor General of Fars Province Enayatollah Rahimi said that the sudden flash flood happened in less than 10 minutes with the flow of water from Allah-o-Akbar gorge converging into the main road and affecting the moving vehicles.

After the incident, police blocked traffic to the flood-hit parts of the city, to speed up rescue operations and avoid further casualties.

Army units stationed in the city were among the many entities which rushed into the help of the flood stricken tourists and residents. All-terrain rescue vehicles, crane trucks, and armored personnel carriers were deployed to help the vehicles stacked one against another.

The flooding also inflicted financial damage upon the city’s markets, including the Vakil Bazaar, which has been registered as a national heritage.

Some homes and neighborhoods were inundated by water and domestic properties and appliances were damaged.

The Director General of the provincial office of Iran Meteorological Organization in Shiraz Masoud Dehmalayee said that in parts of the city precipitation rates overpassed 107 percent on March 25.

Officials said that the reservoirs across the country had been already emptied because of the flood warnings issued by the National Meteorology Organization.

The public relations department of the regional water organization of Fars Province also said that all dams in Fars were sitting pretty with 1.5 billion cubic meter unfilled capacity “which is perfectly capable of containing any flood water”.

In the Southwestern province of Khuzestan flash floods cut off many roads including Andika road connecting Andika to Shahr-e-Kurd, the capital city of the neighboring province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.

In Sarpol Zahab county of Western province of Kermanshah a shepherd lost his life while trying to save his herd.

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