At least 207 people were killed and hundreds injured when a magnitude 7,3 earthquake shook northeastern Iraq and neighboring Iran and Turkey on Sunday night. The injured are more than 1.700 in the territory of the Islamic Republic, the authorities announced.
"Unfortunately, we have 207 dead and about 1.700 injured," Behnam Saidi told state television, ranking second in the structure, at around 09:30 local time (08:00 Cyprus time). The toll could rise further, Iranian officials have warned
The quake struck at a depth of 25 kilometers and about thirty kilometers southwest of the city of Halabja, in a mountainous area in the Iraqi province of Sulaymaniyah, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
It occurred at 20:18 (Greek time) and hit Iran hardest, where according to the Iranian public radio and television IRIB and the Iranian news agency ISNA, by 04:00 local time (03:30 Greek time) 129 dead were recorded and 300 injured while it was also felt in Turkey, where however no casualties or serious material damage have been reported, according to Turkish authorities.
Six people have been killed in Iraq, according to the Iraqi government. The worst-hit area in Iran is Kermanshah province, which borders Iraq.
According to the IRNA news agency, the number of victims of the earthquake is expected to increase even more.
In Iraq, all six people who lost their lives were living in the province of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, officials said. Four people were killed and about XNUMX were injured in Darbadakhan, about XNUMX km south of the city of Sulaymaniyah, city mayor Naseh Mullah Hassan told AFP.
While "a child and an elderly man were killed and 105 people were injured" in the area of Kalar, said the director of the hospital of this community, further south.
Across the country, residents took to the streets when the quake caused severe damage, a French news agency correspondent reported.
The quake was felt for about twenty seconds in Baghdad and more in other parts of Iraq.
On the Iranian side, the cities most affected are Qasr Sirin, on the border, and Azgaleh, about forty kilometers northeast, according to state media.
"We are setting up three camps to receive earthquake victims in the area," the deputy governor of Kermanshah province told state television.
According to IRNA, about 30 rescue teams from the Iranian Red Crescent were sent urgently to western Iran.
Asked by state television, Pir Hussein Kulivand, head of the National Emergency Management Agency, said it was "difficult to send rescue teams to (some) villages because roads have been cut (due to landslides)" caused by the quake.
According to the IRIB website, schools will remain closed today in the quake-hit Kermanshah and Ilam provinces.
Authorities in Darbadhan, Iraq, and Iran's Ilam province have urged residents to spend the night outside their homes as a precaution.
In parts of both countries the electricity supply has been cut off due to the strong earthquake.
The quake affected southeastern Turkey: in Diyarbakir, residents fled their homes when the quake struck, but returned shortly afterwards.
In December 2003, a strong earthquake shook the city of Bam in Iran's Kerman province. At least 31.000 people had lost their lives.
In April 2013, Iran was tested by a few days difference from two strong earthquakes, a first magnitude 6,4 and a second 7,7 magnitude the strongest in the country since 1957. The two earthquakes had cost the lives of about forty people in Iran and neighboring Pakistan.
A magnitude 1990 earthquake in June 7,4 near the Caspian Sea in northern Iran killed at least 40.000 people, injured 300.000 and left more than 500.000 homeless. Within seconds, 27 cities and 1.871 villages were devastated.