An Iranian man invented a story that he was pulled alive from the rubble of his home one week after a powerful earthquake in order to get morphine, officials said yesterday.

　　The official IRNA news agency said earlier yesterday Ahmad Habibzadeh, 40, had been rescued from the ruins left by the 6.4-magnitude earthquake which struck the southeastern Kerman province on February 22, and was taken straight to hospital.

　　But several officials later contacted by Reuters said the "quake survivor" was an impostor.

　　Hassan Seifeddini, the top Health Ministry official in the town of Zarand close to the tremor's epicenter, said Habibzadeh was brought to a hospital yesterday morning by two friends who said they dug him out from under the rubble.

　　"But when doctors checked him they found no signs of dehydration or other symptoms which showed he was under rubble. He had traces of opium in his blood," Seifeddini said.

　　"He was a drug addict who made up this story," he said. "He wanted to get help and medicine, including morphine."

　　(Reuters)