Earthquake kills 61 in Iran

At least 500 injured on both sides of border with Iraq, rescue teams on site

TEHRAN, IRAN — A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the region along the border between Iran and Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 61 people and injuring 300 in Iran, an Iranian official said.

Iranian state TV said Iraqi officials had reported six deaths and 200 injuries inside Iraq, though there was no official comment from Iraq’s government.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centred 30 kilometres outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja.

The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network quoted the head of the country’s emergency medical services, Pirhossein Koulivand, as saying early Monday that at least 61 had been killed and 300 injured on Iran’s side of the border.

Iranian state TV also said Iraqi officials reported at least six people dead inside Iraq, along with more than 50 people injured in Sulaymaniyah province and about 150 in Khanaquin city.

No reports were immediately available from Iraq’s government.

Koulivand earlier told a local television station that the earthquake knocked out electricity in Iran’s western cities of Mehran and Ilam.

He also said 35 rescue teams were providing assistance.

Iranian social media was abuzz Sunday night with posts of people evacuating their homes, particularly in Kermanshah and Ghasr-e Shirin.

The semi-official Iranian ILNA news agency said at least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected by the earthquake.

Iran sits on many major fault lines and is prone to near-daily quakes.

In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people.