Earthquake measuring 6.3 strikes Iran-Iraq border, hundreds injured

Hundreds were injured when an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the Iran-Iraq border on Sunday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported. The USGS said the quake was at a depth of 65 km and struck 114 km northwest of the city of Ilam in Iran’s Kermanshah province.

At least 115 were injured in Sarpol-e Zahab and the neighbouring Gilan-e Gharb city, Kermanshah governor Houshang Bazvand told Fars news agency, the AFP news agency reported. Buildings were damaged in various parts causing walls and roofs to fall. Six rescue teams were pressed into action and no casualty was reported so far.

Read More | Egypt upholds nine death sentences over prosecutor-general killing

“No reports of any fatalities yet and most of the injured were hurt while fleeing, not due to quake damage,” Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the state emergency services, the Iranian state TV said.

The Iraqi state media said the tremor was felt in capital Baghdad and in Erbil in the Kurdistan region. The earthquake struck near Sarpol-e Zahab in Iran’s Kermanshah province, where another quake, with a magnitude of 7.3, killed over 600 people last year. Social media users in Baghdad uploaded videos of furniture moving and chandeliers swinging, according to Al-Jazeera.

Also Read | Syria: 9 killed, several injured in chlorine-filled shell attack

Iran sits on a major fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and has had many earthquakes. In 2003, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 26,000 people.