The 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Sunday night about 64 miles (103km) southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah, near the Iraq-Iran border.

The earthquake was felt across large parts of Iran, including Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan provinces.


The earthquake hit at 9:18pm local time at a depth of 33 kilometres. Rescuers worked through the night to find people trapped in collapsed buildings after the earthquake, which was felt as far west as the coast of the Mediterranean. The earthquake affected several Iranian provinces and the deputy governor of Kermanshah province on the Iraqi border told state television that the death toll would rise. Mojtaba Nikkerdar noted that there are still people under the rubble. "We hope the number of dead and injured won’t rise too much, but it will rise."

ّFollowing the death toll in Kermanshah province, he announced three days of public mourning in the whole province.

/SR