Earthquake kills two, hospitalizes 50 more in Kurdistan’s Garmiyan

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook the Iran-Iraq border on Sunday evening, with casualties being reported in the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan area. The Garmiyan Police Directorate in a statement said that at least 52 people were hospitalized in the region following the quake.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook the Iran-Iraq border on Sunday evening, with casualties being reported in the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan area.

The Garmiyan Police Directorate in a statement said that at least 52 people were hospitalized in the region following the quake.

“A woman named Sabriya Qadir Sharif, a resident of Kalari Kon neighborhood, and a man named Mohammed Fatah Rostam, born in 1950, from the town of Rizgari died as a result of the earthquake,” Garmiyan Police Directorate announced in a statement on Monday morning.

The Directorate also noted that injuries ranged from shocks, heart-attacks, fractures, and lacerations from falling debris.

The Garmiyan Administration is an unofficial province in the Kurdistan Region that includes three cities, Kalar, Kifri, and Chamchamal, which are part of disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.

The quake hit at around 7:37 p.m. (GMT+3), with the center lying at a 20-kilometer distance southwest of Sarpol-e Zahab (Sarpel) in Kermanshah (Kermashan) Province in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat), the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The earthquake hit Iraq-Iran border on Sunday evening. (Photo: USGS)
The earthquake hit Iraq-Iran border on Sunday evening. (Photo: USGS)

The shocks were felt in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region as far away as the capitals of Baghdad and Erbil. In cities near the border with Iran, people were prompted to leave their homes.

Hundreds of people were reported injured in the areas of Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat). Kermanshah (Kermashan) was struck the hardest, with some 600 people harmed in its three main cities, according to Iranian Mehr News Agency.

In late July, a quake with the same strength hit the province of Kermashan, causing over 150 casualties. Another 5.1 on the Richter scale in April injured at least 38, according to reports.

The strongest in recent years was a 7.3 tremor in November 2017 that encompassed whole areas in the Kurdistan Region and Rojhilat. According to reports then, the quake resulted in the death of 630 people, injury to over 8,100, and left tens of thousands homeless.

Editing by Nadia Riva