At least 420 people were reported killed in the temblor.
News of the quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale arrived this morning. The Caritas team departed from Bam, a city that suffered its own devastating quake in December 2003. Bam is about 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Zarand.
Officials said that hundreds were injured in the quake, which struck a mountainous area about 600 miles southeast of Tehran.
About 30,000 people live in the affected area, including Zarand’s 15,000 inhabitants.
