SAR-E POL-E ZAHAB, Iran (AFP) — Thousands of Iranians spent a third night in the cold as authorities scrambled to help those made homeless by a major earthquake that killed more than 400 people.

As the country marked a day of mourning, President Hassan Rouhani promised swift help following the 7.3-magnitude quake that struck a mountainous region spanning the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday.

Volunteers also rushed to help after thousands of homes were destroyed in the quake which rocked a region extending across Iran’s western province of Kermanshah and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan.

But some survivors said not enough was being done.

“We have been here for two days with nothing. We have no tents, no blankets,” said one young resident of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab, the city most affected by the disaster.

He accused “dishonest people” from areas not affected by the quake of diverting food and basic necessities destined for the victims.

Many working-class survivors lost everything amid severe damage to social housing blocks built under a scheme championed by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In the district of Shahid Shiroudi, the frames and ceilings of the Maskan-e Mehr apartment blocks withstood the quake, but their facades collapsed.

From the third floor of one apartment, two men pulled a carpet and dropped it through a gaping space where the outer wall once stood.

“I was living on the fourth floor,” said Ali Biabani, a labourer in his 50s.

“We were happy (after buying the flat), because we had escaped poverty,” he said, but added: “Look yourself, no one can live in there anymore.”

The quake killed at least 432 dead in Iran, all in Kermanshah province, and eight in Iraq.

Yesterday, residents of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab helped police evacuate an elderly man, his face caked in blood, from a home at risk of imminent collapse.

Several buildings and houses lay in complete ruin, while others stood disfigured. Some structures appeared unscathed.

Rescue workers with sniffer dogs combed the ruins for survivors after at least 280 people were killed in the town of some 85,000 people.

The town centre was clogged with traffic as people from the surrounding province rushed to help with rescue efforts.

Tents, some provided by the Red Crescent, dotted green spaces turned into camps for the displaced.

But some did not have shelter in a region where temperatures dropped to four degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit) last night.

“What we need is a tent and covers to be able to get through the night,” said 24-year-old mother Shima Maryami Kiani.

Health Minister Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi was cited yesterday by the Tasnim news agency as recognising that aid “distribution was not assured properly” and needed to be improved.

Rouhani landed by helicopter in the city of Kermanshah and promised the Government would move swiftly to help those left homeless.

“I want to assure those who are suffering that the Government has begun to act with all means at its disposal and is scrambling to resolve this problem as quickly as possible,” he said.

Rouhani said all aid would be channelled through the Housing Foundation, a charitable trust and major player in Iran’s economy.

The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said many older buildings collapsed.

“Newly constructed buildings… held up well, but the old houses built with earth were totally destroyed,” he told state television.

Around 15,500 Iranian homes have been destroyed and another 15,000 damaged in the quake, according to official estimates.

Seven towns and nearly 2,000 villages were damaged, with some villages completely wiped from the map.