Powerful quake kills scores, hurts hundreds in Iran, Iraq
Power outages, darkness hamper rescue efforts
TEHRAN, Iran — At least 140 people have been killed in a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck the border between Iran and northern Iraq, officials in Iran’s Kermanshah Province said early Monday.
The death toll is expected to rise as a spokesman for Iran’s Interior Ministry said rescue efforts in the mainly Kurdish region could only begin properly after sunrise.
The quake’s epicenter was in a remote mountainous region of Iraq, some 125 miles northeast of Baghdad and 250 miles west of Tehran, according to the U.S. Geological Agency.
An aftershock of magnitude 4.5 was registered shortly after the quake struck late Sunday and was followed by another aftershock in the early hours of Monday measuring 4.7.
Rescue teams were sent to the Kermanshah town
of Ghasre Shirin, which Iranian state media reported had suffered considerable damage after the quake struck, but they were being hampered by electricity outages.
Kurdish news agency Rudaw said the Iranian province of Illam was also hard hit and that Kurdish cities in Iraq such as Halabja, Erbil and Duhok were also affected. The Iraqi border cities of Halabja and Sulaymaniyah reportedly declared states of emergency.
Other media reports said the quake could be felt as far away as Kuwait and parts of Turkey.
Kurdistan24 news network reported that 16 people were taken to hospital with injuries in the Iraqi city of Kanaqin, while witnesses reported two deaths in the city of Kore in Erbil province. There was no official confirmation of these reports.
Turkey’s Health Ministry has offered aid for northern Iraq, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Aid agencies said they were on standby to help. “Our humanitarian team in Iraq is monitoring today’s earthquake and is on standby to respond,” the International Rescue Committee tweeted.
In Iraq, emergency workers said at least six Iraqis living in remote villages in Sulaimaniyah province, near the Iranian border, had died.
Hundreds were reported injured in both countries.
The quake, which struck shortly before 10 p.m. Tehran time, was centered about 19 miles outside Halabja, in eastern Iraq.
In the provincial capital of Sulaimaniyah, the second-largest city in the Iraqi Kurdish region, residents described feeling heavy tremors but said there was no notable building damage. Residents in the oil-rich town of Kirkuk, located some 50 miles to the west, had similar reports.
In Baghdad, the tremors were strong enough to shake bookcases and wall-mounted television screens, sending residents in several neighborhoods out into the street. No damage was reported.