Iran storm kills 5, including 3 babies: Radio

Tehran, Mar 17: Three babies choked to death when a sand storm swept through an Iranian desert city yesterday night, state radio and a senior official said today.

Two other people also died when winds of 130 km per hour bore down on Bam in southeastern Iran, the city's governor told the radio. Bam was hit by a major earth quake that killed 31,000 people in 2003.

Fourteen people were injured in the storm, which also caused extensive material damage and cut off electricity for several hours. Television footage showed overturned and stranded cars, the windows smashed and sand covering the seats.

''Three children under the age of one were suffocated by sand and two other people died in a car accident,'' said Bam's governor, who the radio identified only by his surname Etemadi.

''The storm damaged houses, cars, trees and farming ... it caused damages of about 100 billion toman (more than 100 million dollars to the city,'' he said.

Reuters