Devastation in Iran
More than 400 dead after massive quake hits Iraq border region
RESCUERS were forced to dig through debris with their bare hands, searching for survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake on the Iran-Iraq border.
At least 400 people died and 7,000 were injured in the oncecontested mountainous area, which had been rebuilt after the ruinous 1980s war.
The magnitude 7.3 quake struck about 31km outside the Iraqi city of Halabja, at 9.48pm Iran time, just as people were going to bed.
The worst damage appeared to be in the Kurdish town of Sarpole-Zahab in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, which sits in the Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq.
Residents fled into the streets as the quake struck, without time to grab their possessions, as apartment complexes collapsed. Outside walls of some complexes were sheared off by the quake, power and water lines were severed and the phone service was disrupted.
Residents dug frantically through wrecked buildings for survivors as they wailed. Firefighters from the Iranian capital of Tehran joined other rescuers in the desperate search, using dogs to inspect the rubble.
The hospital in Sarpol-e-Zahab was heavily damaged and the army set up field hospitals.
Many of the damaged complexes in Sarpol-e-Zahab were part of construction projects under former president, Ahmadinejad.
The newly homeless slept outside, huddled around makeshift fires for warmth, wrapped in blankets – as were the dead.
The quake killed 407 people in Iran and injured 7,156 others, Iran’s crisis management headquarters spokesman Behnam Saeedi told state TV. Most of the injuries were minor, he said, with fewer than 1,000 still hospitalised.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported 445 dead and 7,370 injured. There was no immediate explanation of the discrepancy. Some reports said unauthorised burials without certification could mean the toll was higher.
In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535 others, all in the country’s northern Kurdish region, according to its Interior Ministry. The quake caused Dubai’s skyscrapers to sway and was felt 1,060km away on the Mediterranean coast.
Kokab Fard, a housewife in Sarpol-e-Zahab, said she fled emptyhanded when her apartment complex collapsed. ‘Immediately after I got out, the building collapsed. I have no access to my belongings.’
In Darbandikhan, Iraq, Amina Mohammed said her family escaped as their home collapsed around them. ‘I think it was only God that saved us,’ she said.
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