7.3-magnitude earthquake kills at least 407 on Iraq-iran border
● Tremors felt on the Mediterranean ● More than 6,700 people injured
A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake near the Iraqiran border has killed more than 400 people across both countries, sent residents fleeing their homes into the night and was felt as far away as the Mediterranean coast.
Iran’s western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the natural disaster on Sunday night. Authorities said the quake killed 407 people in the country and injured 6,700. Kermanshah is a rural, mountainous region where residents rely mainly on farming.
In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535, all in the country’s northern Kurdish region.
The quake struck at 6:18pm GMT and was centred 19 miles outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja. Tremors could be felt on the Mediterranean coast, some 660 miles away. The earthquake struck 14.4 miles below the surface, a shallow depth that amplified the damage.
Iranian social media and news agencies showed images and videos of people fleeing their homes. More than 100 aftershocks followed.
The quake’s worst damage appeared to be in the town of Sarpol-e-zahab in Kermanshah province, which sits in the Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq.
Kokab Fard, a 49-year-old housewife in Sarpol-e-zahab, said she fled empty-handed when her apartment complex collapsed. “Immediately after I managed to get out, the building collapsed,” Ms Fard said. “I have no access to my belongings.”
Reza Mohammadi, 51, said he and his family ran out into the alley after the first shock.
“I tried to get back to pick up some stuff, but it totally collapsed in the second wave,” Mr Mohammadi said.
Sarpol-e-zahab residents said power and water were unavailable and telephone and cellphone lines were dropping out. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences yesterday as he urged rescuers and government agencies to do all they could to help those affected.
President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to tour earthquakedamaged areas today.
The semi-official ILNA news agency said at least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected by the earthquake.
Behnam Saeedi, a spokesman for the country’s crisis management headquarters, said casualty figures stood at 407 killed and 6,700 injured.
In Iraq, prime minister Haider al-abadi issued a directive for the country’s civil defence teams and “related institutions” to respond to the natural disaster.
Brigadier General Saad Maan, an interior ministry spokesman, gave the casualty figures for Iraq.
The quake could be felt across Iraq, shaking buildings and homes from Irbil to Baghdad where people fled into the streets of the capital. Amina Mohammed, who survived the quake in Darbandikhan, said she and her sons escaped their home as it collapsed around them.
“I think it was only God that saved us,” she said. “I screamed to God and it must have been him who stopped the stairs from entirely collapsing on us.”
The Iraqi city of Halabja, closest to the epicentre, was the target of a 1988 chemical attack in which Saddam Hussein’s troops killed some 5,000 people with mustard gas. The incident was the deadliest chemical weapons attack ever against civilians.
Iraqi seismologist Abdulkarim Abdullah Taqi, who runs the earthquake monitoring group at the staterun meteorological department, said the main reason for the lower casualty figure in Iraq was the angle and the direction of the fault line. He said the Iraqi geological formations were better able to absorb the shocks.