60 More Rescued From Quake Debris

Health Minister Yevgeny Chazov said today that 60 more survivors have been pulled from earthquake wreckage in northern Armenia in the last 24 hours, but those rescued now face a danger of pneumonia and other illnesses caused by exposure to bad weather.

He did not elaborate about those rescued and acknowledged that the chances of finding more survivors were dwindling, but he told reporters that “we cannot and will not abandon the search until we clear all the ruins and all the debris.”

Frigid, foggy weather and problems in the Soviet supply line cost rescuers vital time today in their race to supply survivors with food, medicine and shelter.

Too Late for Thousands

Medical experts said that it was already too late to help thousands of people who remain trapped under rubble and that relief efforts must focus on the hurt and homeless.

Gennady I. Gerasimov, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said today that 55,000 people died in the Dec. 7 earthquake. About 500,000 of the area’s 700,000 people were left homeless.

Flights between Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and the disaster area were delayed by rain, snow and fog. Belgian and French relief planes which had been delayed in Moscow because of fog in Yerevan flew late in the day to Armenia.

Airports in Armenia have been clogged with relief traffic and two planes have crashed: a Soviet Il-76 military transport on which 78 people died and a Yugoslav military plane on which seven died.

The weather forecast was worsening, with the weekend expected to bring more snow and winds up to 45 m.p.h.

The survivors “are almost totally isolated in the cold,” said Dr. Bernard Mankikian, who returned to Paris after visiting Spitak, a city that was destroyed by the quake.

At the airport in Spitak, “a huge quantity of goods desperately needed in the disaster areas has piled up,” the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said.

It said there was no regular supply of hot food to survivors and there were difficulties providing tents to survivors and rescuers.

Soviet officials have asked the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies for tents to set up housing and emergency medical services in 48 villages.

Pravda, giving the first indications that looting and other crimes were becoming a problem in the disaster area, reported break-in attempts at a jewelry store and apartments and the slaying of one person.