5.3-magnitude earthquake in Iran’s Kurdish region leaves at least 38 casualties

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – An earthquake in Iranian Kurdistan’s (Rojhilat) Kermanshan Province on Sunday left at least 38 people injured, local media reported.

The 5.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the western Iranian region at 1:05 p.m. (local time), a report from the seismography center affiliated with Tehran University Geophysics Institute revealed.

The tremor’s epicenter was located at a depth of eight kilometers underground near the town of Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshan.

Authorities and medical officials arrived in the Kurdish region shortly after reports of the earthquake, taking the injured to hospitals. There were no deaths reported at the time of publishing this report.

Locals in the province said several buildings had collapsed and others were severely damaged.

The natural phenomenon is common in Iranian Kurdistan and surrounding regions in the eastern Kurdistan Region.

On Wednesday, 12 earthquakes of at least 3.7-magnitude were recorded in Sulaimani. Although residents said they felt the tremors, no casualties were reported.

The most recent, deadliest earthquake to rock the region was on Nov. 12, 2017, when a devastating 7.3-magnitude tremor hit the border areas of the Kurdistan Region and Rojhilat.

Nine civilians were killed in Kurdistan, with scores more injured. The locations most affected were Sulaimani, Halabja, and northern parts of Diyala.

Meanwhile, over 500 casualties were reported in the Kurdish province of Kermanshan in Rojhilat, with hundreds more injured.

The tremor and subsequent aftershocks caused major damage to public facilities and properties, including historical buildings and dams.

An estimated 15,000 houses were destroyed in Iranian Kurdistan when the earthquake leveled two villages, leaving up to 70,000 people homeless.