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IRAN-EARTHQUAKE
Strong earthquake rocks western Iran
TEHRAN, Nov 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit
Iran’s western province of Kermanshah late Sunday, the country’s institute of
geophysics said, with local officials reporting some 260 people injured.
The epicentre of the quake was 17 kilometres southwest of the city of
Sarpol-e Zahab, according to the institute, which said it struck at a depth
of 7 kilometres.
At least 260 people were injured in Sarpol-e Zahab and the neighbouring
city of Gilan-e Gharb, close to the Iraqi border, Kermanshah governor
Houshang Bazvand told state television.
“We’ve had no reports of fatalities so far. The situation is currently
under control,” Bazvand said.
“There were power and water cuts in both cities, but they lasted only a few
minutes.”
The head of Iran’s emergency medical services Pirhossein Kolivand said in
televised comments that most of the injuries were due to “people panicking
and fleeing their homes”.
The number of those hurt could rise as 18 emergency teams dispatched from
neighbouring provinces were still assessing the damage, he said.
Sarpol-e Zahab resident Fariba Babayi described the fear that swept the
city when the quake hit.
“Lights went out, walls looked as if they were going to fall and all the
neighbours were screaming,” Babayi, 36, told AFP by telephone.
“I didn’t run this time, even though my mother was out calling to me.”
Those living in the city are all too familiar with the devastation
earthquakes can bring after it bore the brunt of a 7.3-magnitude termor last
November that killed 620 people and injured thousands more.
Partial rebuilding work on Babayi’s house finished just a month ago after
it was razed in that quake and her family are still paying construction
costs.
“We cannot go back to normal life anymore. There are all the bad memories,
the trauma people live with,” she told AFP.
There were no official details of any damage to buildings and
infrastructure after the latest earthquake.
The region was rocked by seven weaker aftershocks an hour after the initial
tremor, the strongest of which was magnitude 5.2, the geophysics institue
said.
There were also reports that the initial quake was felt across the border
in Iraq.
– ‘Just reconstructed’ –
Morteza Salimi, an official with the red crescent society of Iran, told
semi-official news agency ISNA that the quake rocked areas “just
reconstructed” after the tremor a year ago.
The quake last November damaged some 30,000 houses, with huge numbers made
homeless at the start of the cold season in the mountainous region.
Local officials said the estimated cost of reconstruction would be billions
of dollars, at a time when Iran was struggling to cope with a tanking
economy.
There was criticism that new social housing built as part of a scheme
championed by ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had failed to withstand the
tremor.
The western province of Kermanshah was also hit by a 6.0-magnitude quake in
August that killed two people and injured more than 250.
Iran sits on top of two major tectonic plates and sees frequent seismic
activity.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude tremor struck the southeast of the country,
decimating the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killing at least 31,000
people.
The country’s deadliest was a 7.4-magnitude quake in 1990, that killed
40,000 people in northern Iran, injured 300,000 and left half a million
homeless.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1248 hrs