Iran’s Emergency Medical Services on Tuesday said it had ended rescue operations in areas in the Kermanshah province hit by the powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake on Sunday night. The toll in the disaster has risen to at least 450 people, and nearly 8,000 were injured, state television reported, according to Reuters.
Clips on TV showed rescue workers digging through debris in villages immediately after the temblor, but officials in Iran said chances of finding any more survivors were slim to none. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit the region on Tuesday.
There have been nearly 200 aftershocks since the quake struck regions along the border with Iraq. At least 14 provinces in Iran were hit, but Kermanshah was the worst affected. At least two villages were completely destroyed. Thousands have taken shelter in makeshift camps in the cold.
The earthquake struck around 9.20 pm on Sunday night, with its epicenter in Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah province in the northern Kurdish. At least 13 people were killed in Iraq and nearly 200 injured.
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