ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Pakistan rushed two mobile military hospitals to Iran on Tuesday to help thousands of people injured in a devastating earthquake last week which claimed at least 28,000 lives, officials said.

Two C-130 planes carrying army field unit hospitals and necessary medicines and relief items left here early on Tuesday, they said.

Military officials said the hospitals were manned by 55 doctors and paramedical staff.

President Pervez Musharraf ordered the dispatch of the equipment and staff after speaking to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami by telephone, they said.

The government sent two planeload of relief goods on Friday to Iran immediately after the earthquake struck Iranian historic city of Bam, killing more than 40,000 people.

Some 28,000 bodies have been recovered from the rubble four days after the disaster, state radio reported on Tuesday quoting local officials, who warned the final toll could top 30,000.

The quake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale destroyed 70 per cent of the ancient Iranian city of Bam.—AFP