Iran holds counter-quake drill in female school

TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Sunday held drills in a Tehran school simulating earthquake occurrence in the country.

With the participation of the Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar and Education Minister Hamid-Reza Hajibabaie, the maneuver was held in one of the female guidance schools in northeast Tehran.

The students practiced the ways to survive in instances of earthquake and learned to help others both inside and outside the classroom.

They learned how to put off the fire with extinguishers and helped their injured classmates with first aids. The emergency teams, both the volunteer students and civil workers, also contributed to the survival exercises.

"Some schools are currently being built throughout the country ... (and) during the past four years we have reconstructed most of the country's schools against earthquakes ... We can say that within the next five years, schools nationwide will be even fortified (against quakes)," said Education Minister Hajibabaie said.

Iran is located at the borders of the earth's plates which is hit by several earthquakes annually. The destructive Bam earthquake was a major earthquake that struck Bam and the surrounding Kerman province of southeastern Iran on Dec. 26, 2003, killing 26,271 people and injuring an additional 30,000.

Iran on Sunday held drills in a Tehran school simulating earthquake occurrence in the country.