At least 328 dead, more than 4,000 injured in Iran-Iraq earthquake

RESCUE efforts are underway in Iraq and Iran after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the border region between the two countries, killing at least 328 people and injuring 4,000 more, Aljazeera reported.

As aftershocks continued on Monday and as rescuers scrambled to find survivors, Iran’s state news agency IRNA confirmed the death toll, saying at least 382 of the injured remain in hospital.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said Sunday’s powerful quake hit close to Halabjah, southeast of Sulaimaniyah, a city in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sent a group of ministers, headed by Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli, to areas impacted by the earthquake to “consider the process of relief” and to “address the injured”, according to the Iranian government.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari along with his forces is overseeing the rescue operations in the badly-hit western province of Kermanshah.

Most of the victims are believed to be in the Iranian town of Sarpol-e Zahab. An estimated 70,000 people have been displaced across the country.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, said: “The Iranians have moved on the emergency response teams very quickly, setting up field hospitals and moving in heavy machinery to try and get to people that could still be trapped in the rubble.”

Across the border in Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi offered reassurance to his citizens over the recovery efforts.

“I have instructed Civil Defence teams and health and aid agencies to do all that they can to provide assistance to our citizens affected by yesterday’s earthquake. We will do everything possible to help them. Wishing safety and security for all our people,” Abadi said on Twitter.

To assist Iraq, Turkey has sent a search and rescue operation of 20 people, including the head of the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, Mehmet Gulluoglu.

The government of Iraqi Kurdistan thanked Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the “prompt assistance and offer of help”.

The Kurdish Rudaw news agency tweeted a photo of a Turkish cargo plane landing in the Sulaimaniyah airport in Iraqi Kurdistan.