Politics

Earthquake rocks Iranian town amid national flood alert

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilti) areas on Monday amid a national emergency due to flash floods across parts of the country that have resulted in the deaths of at least 45 people.

Kosar Nawzad 2019/04/01 11:25

middle east Iran Rojhilat Iraq Baghdad Ilam Kermashan Earthquake

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A 5.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Iranian Kurdish (Rojhilti) areas on Monday amid a national emergency due to flash floods across parts of the country that have resulted in the deaths of at least 45 people.

The quake hit Iran at 2:26 p.m. local time with its epicenter being near the town of Sumar, southwestern Kermanshah (Kermashan) Province.

The location is just kilometers away from border areas near the Iraqi city of Mandali in Iraq's eastern Diyala Province, where tremors were measured at a magnitude of 4.9.

Update: M4.9 #earthquake (#زلزله) strikes 63 km W of #Īlām (#Iran) 60 min ago. https://t.co/WfQYyzfQZX pic.twitter.com/AvEdHMXYNs
— EMSC (@LastQuake) April 1, 2019

The shocks were felt in Iraq as far away as the capital of Baghdad. Lying on a major geological fault-line, earthquakes are a common occurrence in the Rojhilati province of Kermanshan.

Local sources in Kermashan told Kurdistan 24 that when with the tremor hit, all communication devices became temporarily out of service.

“Thus far, four earthquakes have hit [the] region,” Khaledi, spokesperson for the Iranian National Emergency department was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency in reference to the initial incident and its aftershocks in areas near Sumar.

Khaledi added that no casualties had yet been reported. “It is important to note that this area has a very low population density, which greatly reduces the likelihood of injury.”

Map of the testimonies received so far following the #earthquake M5.2 in Iran-Iraq Border Region 42 min ago pic.twitter.com/otN2YO7Kq6
— EMSC (@LastQuake) April 1, 2019

Tasnim claimed that the country’s Red Crescent Society, tasked with performing relief and rescue operations to help those injured in natural disasters and accidents, had deployed teams to the area to assess the situation.

The quakes come at a time when national emergency services are already spread thin. Many villages in the country’s western provinces of Lorestan and Khuzestan and Golestan in the north are still in the process of evacuation due to major flooding that has killed dozens of people.

Local media has reported that the three provinces have declared a state of emergency while the country as a whole remains on a flood alert.

Editing by John J. Catherine