Alwaght- A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Iran's western Province of Kermanshah on Sunday night, leaving at least 729 people injured.
According to Iranian media, the quake occurred at a depth of 7 kilometers on at 20:07 (local time).
The official IRNA news agency quoted University of Tehran’s Institute of Geophysics as saying that the quake struck 17 km west of the Iranian city of Sarpol-e-Zahab in Kermanshah Province, 18 km from Qasr-e Shirin and 33 km from the city of Gilan-e-Gharb.
The quake was also felt in most cities in Iran's Kermanshah and Ilam provinces as well as in Tabriz and Urmia, the capital cities of East and West Azarbaijan provinces, respectively.
Fears of aftershocks have sent people in the province out onto the streets and parks in cold weather.
The official added that power supply has been cut in some affected areas in Kermanshah Province with technical teams doing their best to restore electricity.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Geological Survey said the quake was felt in the capital Baghdad and in Erbil in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region with the country’s Interior Ministry saying that no damage or casualties had been reported so far.
Last November, Kermanshah Province was hit by a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake, which killed hundreds of people.
The epicenter of 2017 quake was 32 kilometers south of the Iraqi city of Halabja, in Iraqi Kurdistan, and just across the border from Iran, but the highest casualties occurred in the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, in Iran’s Kermanshah Province.
