OVER 415 KILLED IN IRAN QUAKE
100 AFTERSHOCKS FOLLOW Temblor centered 30 km outside Iraq’s Halabja
A car lies smashed by debris from a powerful earthquake in SarpoleZahab, Iran, on Monday. The 7.3 quake shook the IranIraq border late on Sunday, killing more than 415 people and injuring thousands.
TEHRAN: Teams of Iranian rescuers dug through rubble in a hunt for survivors on Monday after an earthquake struck the Iran-Iraq border, killing at least 415 people and injuring thousands.
The 7.3-magnitude quake rocked a border area 30 kilometres southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9:20 pm local time on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said.
Many people would have been at home when the quake hit in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah, where authorities said it killed at least 407 people and injured 6,700.
Across the border in more sparsely populated areas of Iraq, the health ministry said eight people had died and several hundred were injured. Iraq’s Red Crescent reported nine dead and more than 400 injured.
As dusk approached on Monday, tens of thousands of Iranians were forced to sleep outside in the cold for a second night as authorities scrambled to provide them with aid. Some had spent Sunday night outdoors after fleeing their homes in the mountainous crossborder region.
Hundreds of ambulances and dozens of army helicopters reportedly joined the rescue effort after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the government and armed forces to mobilise “all their means”.
Officials said they were setting up relief camps for the displaced.
Some 259,000 people live in the region, according to the most recent census. State television showed tents, blankets and food being distributed in areas struck by the temblor.
In neighbouring Dalahoo County, several villages were totally destroyed.
In Iraq, the health ministry said the quake had killed seven people in the northern province of Sulaimaniyah and one in Diyala province to its south.
More than 500 people were injured in both provinces and the nearby province of Kirkuk.
Footage posted on Twitter showed panicked people fleeing a building in Sulaimaniyah as windows shattered at the moment the quake struck. Images from the nearby town of Darbandikhan showed walls and concrete structures that had collapsed.
The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of 23 kilometres, was felt for about 20 seconds in Baghdad, and for longer in other provinces of Iraq.
It was also felt in southeastern Turkey, an AFP correspondent said.