Tehran—The death toll in Sunday’s earthquake of 7.3 magnitude in the bordering area of Iran and Iraq reached 550, officials confirmed. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani visited Kermanshah on Tuesday and observed the hardest hit area.
The earthquake was felt hundreds of kilometers away in both Baghdad and Tehran. Tuesday was declared the day of national mourning and reuters reports– “Iran wept”, read the front page of Aftab-e-Yazd, over a big photo of an Iranian woman holding a lost family member in her arms. “Kermanshah, you are not alone,” read the reformist Etemaad’s headline.
Officials have issued 430 death certificates and around 170 people have been buried under the rubbles. It has said that the death toll may cross 600 since dozens of people are still missing. The number of injured people is over 7,500 and officials informed that 12,000 houses had been completely destroyed and a further 15,000 damaged.
Iran has struggled to shade all those affected on Monday night as hundreds were compelled to sleep in the open air without electricity and water supplies. “We are living in a tent and we don’t have enough food or water,” Ali Gulani, 42, from Qasr-e-Shirin, told BBC’s Persian service.
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