(Newswire.net — November 15, 2017) –According to the Iranian National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO), at least 328 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured in Iran, when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted the country on Sunday.
Iranian officials say that the number of deaths could be even greater because rescue teams were still searching for dozens trapped under rubble in the mountainous area.
Some roads were blocked, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said, and authorities were worried about the victims in remote villages.
The earthquake was felt in several western provinces of Iran, but the western part of Iran was hit the hardest, particularly Kermanshah, a province which is 326 miles from Tehran and about 10 miles from the Iraq border. In that area, 142 people were hurt, and the largest hospital is severely damaged so that injured people cannot get medical help there.
The earthquake was also felt in Iraq, where at least seven people died in the Kurdistan region, said Kurdistan Regional Government’s Health Minister Rekawt Hama Rasheed.
Also, officials said that at least 321 people were injured in the Kurdistan area, and the city of Darbandikhan was the most affected and that the situation in the city is critical. There is no electricity, a large number of buildings and houses have been damaged, as well as the largest hospital.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the quake’s epicenter was at about 19 miles south-southwest of the Iraqi city of Halabja.
The Iranian Seismological Center has registered more than 118 aftershocks and said that more were expected.
Some agencies report that the earthquake was felt both in Kuwait and in Turkey, but there were no reports of any damage or casualties there.
People in Iran are scared, they are on the streets, afraid to enter their homes, and Iraq’s meteorology center advised them to stay away from buildings.