Iran distraught at twins' death

2003-07-08 14:00

Tehran - Iran was plunged into mourning on Tuesday following the death in Singapore of conjoined Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani, whose daring bid to lead separate lives had caught the imagination of the nation.

After the death of the first twin was reported, government spokesperson Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said that the Islamic republic was in "deep sorrow".

Upon news of the second death, for which state media interrupted normal programming, Ramezanzadeh's aides said he was too distraught to offer any comment.

Many Iranians have been glued to the television or radio to follow the progress of the marathon operation, with state media providing minute-by-minute updates on the progress of the surgery on the twins - whose quest for separation had initially received little media attention here.

Vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi said that all Iranians had been left "distraught" by the failure of the operation.

"These last 29 years, from the announcement of their birth to the different moments in their painful lives, have now been engraved in the collective memory of the country," he said.

"Not only the family of Laleh and Ladan, but all the Iranian people have been closely following this operation. Their deaths makes us all distraught," he added.

The historic attempt to separate the adult twin sisters, who were joined at the head, ended tragically in Singapore Tuesday when they died within 90 minutes of each other after a marathon operation.

A hospital statement said the twins - who had pushed to go through with the operation despite clear warnings of the consequences - lost a lot of blood as the neurosurgical stage of the 52-hour operation, in which their tightly enmeshed brains were separated, was coming to an end.

- AFX