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Friday March 29, 2024

Iran pledges swift aid after major quake kills 400

By AFP
November 14, 2017

SAR-E POL-E ZAHAB, Iran: Iranian authorities scrambled on Tuesday to bring help to thousands of people left homeless by a major quake that killed more than 400 people.

As the country marked a day of mourning, President Hassan Rouhani promised swift help following the 7.3-magnitude quake that struck a mountainous region spanning the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday.

Volunteers also rushed to help the displaced after thousands of homes were destroyed in the quake, which rocked a region extending across Iran´s western province of Kermanshah and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan.

On Tuesday afternoon, the damage was visible in the town of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab, Iran´s worst hit in the quake.

Residents helped police to evacuate an elderly man from a home at risk of imminent collapse. His face was covered in caked blood and his hand was bandaged.

Several buildings and houses lay in complete ruins, while others stood disfigured after their facades had collapsed. But other structures appeared unscathed.

A team of rescue workers with sniffer dogs combed the ruins for survivors after at least 280 people were killed in the town of some 85,000.

The town centre was clogged with traffic as people from the surrounding province rushed to help with rescue efforts. Some distributed blankets and others handed out water.

Tents, some provided by the Red Crescent, dotted green spaces turned into camps for the displaced. But some did not have shelter from the cold.

Earlier in the day, residents who had fled their homes awoke from a second night in the chilly outdoors as authorities struggled to get aid into the quake zone.

Rouhani was expected to speak with local officials to evaluate the situation, after landing by helicopter in the city of Kermanshah where he promised the government would move swiftly to help those left homeless.

As winter sets in, around 15,500 Iranian homes have been destroyed and another 15,000 damaged in the quake, according to official estimates.

Seven towns and nearly 2,000 villages were damaged, authorities said, and several villages were completely wiped from the map.

The human toll in Iran stood at 432 dead and 7,460 injured, while across the border in more sparsely populated areas of Iraq, the health ministry said eight people had died and several hundred were injured. Iraq´s Red Crescent put the toll at nine dead.