7.3 quake kills hundreds in Iran
7.3 tremor strikes border of Iran and Iraq, makes its effect felt as far as Turkey, Lebanon and Pakistan
BAGHDAD— A 7.3-magnitude quake struck the border of Iraq and Iran, generating more than 50 aftershocks that were felt in Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey. At least 328 people were killed in the Iranian province of Kermanshah with the toll expected to rise in one of the deadliest quakes in Iran’s history. An earlier 6.6 quake killed at least 31,000 in its city of Bam.
BAGHDAD— At least 328 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured by a quake in Iran’s Kermanshah province on the Iraqi border, according to the Iranian news agency Isna.
Isna quoted the coroner’s office in the province as saying that the death toll was expected to increase.
At least 207 of the dead were in Iran, according to Behnam Saeedi, spokesperson for Iran’s National Disaster Management Organization. More than 1,700 were injured, Saeedi said.
Officials expected the casualty toll to rise when search and rescue teams reached remote areas of Iran.
A quake registering a magnitude of 7 to 7.9 can inflict widespread and heavy damage. Moreover, many houses in rural areas of Iran are made of mud bricks that can crumble easily in a quake.
The earthquake was felt in several provinces of Iran but the hardest hit province was Kermanshah, which announced three days of mourning.
More than 142 of the dead were in Sarpol-e Zahab county in Kermanshah, about 15 kilometers from the Iraqi border.
Damaged hospital
The main hospital of the capital of the county was severely damaged and could not treat hundreds of injured people who were taken there, said the head of the Iranian emergency services, Pirhossein Koulivand.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of 7.3. An Iraqi meteorology official put its magnitude at 6.5 with the epicenter in Sulaimaniyah province in the Kurdistan region close to the main border crossing with Iran.
Kurdish health officials said at least four people were killed in Iraq and at least 50 injured.
The quake was felt as far south as Baghdad, where many residents rushed from their houses and tall buildings when tremors shook the Iraqi capital.
Scenes of destruction
“I was sitting with my kids having dinner and suddenly the building was just dancing in the air,” said Majida Ameer, who ran out of her building in Baghdad’s Salihiya district with her three children. “I thought at first that it was a huge bomb. But then I heard everyone around me screaming: ‘Earthquake!’”
Similar scenes unfolded in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdis- tan region, and across other cities in northern Iraq, close to the quake’s epicenter.
Electricity was cut off in several Iranian and Iraqi cities and fears of aftershocks sent thousands of people in both countries out onto the streets and parks in cold weather.
The Iranian seismological center registered around 50 aftershocks and said more were expected.
The head of Iranian Red Crescent said more than 70,000 people were in need of emergency shelter.
Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran’s interior minister, said some roads were blocked and that there could be more casualties in remote villages. The Iranian armed forces have been deployed to help the emergency services.
An Iranian oil official said pipelines and refineries in the area remained intact.
Iran sits astride major fault lines and was prone to frequent tremors. A 6.6-magnitude quake on Dec. 26 last year devastated the historic city of Bam, 1,000 km southeast of Tehran, killing about 31,000 people.
‘Very critical’ situation
On the Iraqi side, the most extensive damage was in the town of Darbandikhan, 75 km east of the city of Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan.
More than 30 people were injured in the town, according to Rekawt Hama Rasheed, Kurdish health minister.
“The situation there is very critical,” Rasheed said.
The district’s main hospital was severely damaged and had no power, Rasheed said.
In Halabja, local officials said a 12-year-old boy died of an electric shock from a falling electric cable.
Residents of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir also reported feeling a strong tremor, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the city.