The death toll from Saturday’s twin earthquakes in northwestern Iran is now responsible for 306 deaths according to government officials. Officials attribute the climbing toll to injured dying in hospitals and reports of dead buried by family members before the arrival of government staff.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck at 5:23pm local time followed by a 6.3 earthquake in the same area 11 minutes later. Officials report that 20 villages in the region were completely destroyed and hundreds of others have suffered varying levels of damage.

“The moment the earthquake hit, it was like a snake biting from underground,” Morteza Javid, 47, told the Associated Press. “It was the worst experience of my life.”

The government said that because of the harsh winters in the region they’re moving to an effort to rebuild the villages as soon as possible. Government funds will be used to rebuild many of the houses in the damaged villages.

Iran has turned down offers of help from the US, Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore and Germany, saying that they can cope by themselves. However, the hospitals in the region are overwhelmed with injured and many families are reporting still missing relatives.

Iran has a major geological fault line running through the country that has caused major fatalities in the past.