OVER 415 KILLED IN IRAN QUAKE
100 AFTERSHOCKS FOLLOW Temblor centered 31 km outside Iraq’s Halabja
A man stares at a building damaged by earthquake in at the city of Sarpole- Zahab in western Iran on Monday. A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the IraqIran border region killed over 415 people in both countries, injured 6,000 others, sent people fleeing their homes into the night and was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast, authorities reported. Iran’s western Kermanshah province was the hardest hit.
TEHRAN: A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the IraqIran border region killed over 340 people across both countries, sent people fleeing their homes into the night and was felt as far away as the Mediterranean coast, authorities reported on Monday.
Iran’s western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor, with Iran’s state-run news agency reporting the quake killed 341 people in the country and injured 5,953. The area is a rural, mountainous region where residents rely mainly on farming to make a living.
In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535 there, all in the country’s northern, semiautonomous Kurdish region, according to Iraq’s interior ministry.
The quake was centred 31 kilometers outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the US Geological Survey.
The earthquake struck 23.2 kilometers below the surface, a shallow depth that can have broader damage. Magnitude 7 earthquakes on their own are capable of widespread, heavy damage.
Iranian social media and news agencies showed images and videos of people fleeing their homes into the night. 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.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences on Monday and urged rescuers and all government agencies to do all they could to help those affected, state media reported.
President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to tour earthquakedamaged areas Tuesday.
The semi-official ILNA news agency said at least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected by the earthquake.
Officials announced that schools in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces would be closed on Monday because of the temblor.
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. Brig Gen Saad Maan, an interior ministry spokesman, gave the casualty figures for Iraq.
The quake could be felt across Iraq, shaking buildings and homes from Erbil to Baghdad, where people fled into the streets of the capital.