SHIRAN. Iran. Mar 2: Temperatures plunged and a blanket of snow covered northwestern Iran today, hampering rescue teams trying to reach villages devastated by a massive earthquake. reports AP.

The earthquake that struck Friday has claimed at least 3.000 lives, rescue and aid workers say. The official toll released by the government stood at 554, but was expected to rise. The government said at least 2,000 were injured.

The Farsi-Ianguage Kayhan daily on Saturday quoted an official in the hard-hit Ardabil province as saying that 110 villages were affected.

Ine narrow roads leading to the villages were covered with sheets of ice today making access difficult. Most villages had received some help, but survivors said they needed tents and fuel to cope with tempera-tufes that fell Sunday to minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit).

Some aid workers said a istring of riliages-beyond the Sabalan mountains, made impenetrable by the snow, may nave been the hardest hit. But they have been unable to reach the area to make an assessment.

On this side of the mountains. Shiran, a wealthy farmpeople, was devastated. Shiran is 25 kilometers southwest of the town of Ardabil.

Reza Azizvand was among only a handful of people who remained here, and he sat in the only room of his" house that remained standing.

He said his wife of five months was among the dead and estimated that half of the village’s people had been wiped out.

The Iranian quake was one of a number that jolted Asian countries over the last couple of days, including temblors in Armenia. China and Pakistan. Scientists said there was no evidence that any of them were connected.

The death toll in just six villages visited by reporters in Ardabil province was estimated at more than 2.000 people.

"We do not know who is where." said a man in Viand, a village of 700 people where residents said 33 people had died.

"No one knows whether his neighbours have left the village to go live with relatives elsewhere. whether he is in a hospital or buried somewhere under the rubble." he said.

A doctor in Ardabil and several villagers said the wolves and dogs had attacked the corpses of people and animals and. at times, hampered rescuers.

Hundreds of sheep and cows — the livelihood of the farming villages — were buried under landslides and the collapsed walls of houses.