The bodies of over 25,000 victims of the killer quake in Bam, a historical city in southeastern province of Kerman, have been buried until Monday morning, said Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani in Tehran on Monday, IRNA reported.

photo: ISNA

Khanjani said the quake toll will rise by the coming hours considering the scale of damage inflicted on the area and destruction of major portion of the city.

He said Bam has been unfortunately levelled to the ground and more than 12,000 of the injured have been transferred to all Iranian provinces by air or by land.

He cited water, packaged food, detergents, masks, coverings and mechanical diggers as the prime items needed in the quake-stricken areas.

The source said the majority of civil servants have been either killed or injured in the devastating quake.

photo: ISNA

Khanjani said drinking water facilities are being repaired and the electricity services have been fully restored. He added that several mobile hospitals too are now busy rendering services to the patients.

Furthermore, he said railway facilities are now working, transferring required items to and from the area.

German rescue team to call off search for quake survivors
Berlin, Dec 29, IRNA -- German rescue workers are to call off their search for survivors of the Bam earthquake within the next hours and are to return to Germany on Tuesday, DPA quoted a spokesman for the German government-run THW aid agency as saying on Monday.

"The team and the sniffer dogs are at the end of their tethers," said Heinrich Ganss at the THW base in the south German city of Darmstadt.

He added that the German rescue workers have been worn down and frustrated that they could not locate any more survivors.

The THW squad was one of the first foreign rescue teams to reach the devastated city of Bam following Friday's killer quake.

Debris-buried infant miraculously survived
Kerman, Dec 29, IRNA -- A six-month-old infant, Nassim, was unearthed live two days after the killer quake in the Iranian historical city of Bam in this southeastern province.

Her mother, who had hugged Nassim and other family members were reported dead under piles of rubble.

According to her doctor, Nassim enjoys satisfactory general conditions.

1,000 quake-stricken Iranian children reunite with families
Kerman, Dec 29, IRNA -- Welfare Department of this southeastern city Monday said 1,000 quake-stricken children in Bam have rejoined their families.

The department vice-chairman told IRNA some 50 orphan children have been accommodated in Kerman centers.

Mansour Hassani added 40 relief workers from Tehran alongside their counterparts from Kerman have started their spirit-raising work in the devastated region.

He said Kerman Welfare Department plans to room all the children, whose parents have been killed in the quake.