At least 218 killed in quake

BAGHDAD/ANKARA: At least 218 people were killed in Iran and Iraq when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted the region yesterday, state media in the two countries said, as rescuers searched for dozens trapped under rubble in the mountainous area.

State television said more than 214 people were killed in Iran and at least 2 500 were injured. Local officials told state TV that the death toll would rise as search-and-rescue teams reached remote areas of Iran.

The earthquake was felt in several western provinces of Iran but the hardest hit province was Kermanshah. More than 142 of the victims were in Sarpol-e Zahab county in Kermanshah province, about 15km from the Iraq border. State television said the quake had caused heavy damages in some villages where houses were made of earthen bricks. Rescuers were labouring to find trapped survivors.

The quake also triggered landslides that hindered rescue efforts.

The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 7.3. An Iraqi meteorology official put its magnitude at 6.5 with the epicentre in Penjwin 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.

“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 the capital’s Salihiya dis- trict 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 Kurdistan Region, and across other cities in northern Iraq, close to the quake’s epicentre.

Electricity was cut off in several Iranian and Iraqi cities, and fears of aftershocks sent thousands of people out on to the streets in cold weather.

The Iranian seismological centre registered around 118 aftershocks and said more were expected. The head of Iranian Red Crescent said more than 70 000 people were in need of emergency shelter.

Iran sits astride major fault lines and is prone to frequent tremors. A magnitude 6.6 quake on December 26, 2003, devastated the historic city of Bam, killing about 31 000 people. – Reuters