Tremors felt in UAE as deadly quake hits Iraq
At least 6 people reported dead in Iran as earthquake sends UAE residents rushing into street
London: An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck neat Iraq's border with Iran on Sunday, 103km southeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah, the US Geological Survey said.
Tremors were felt in the UAE, according to social media users.
The quake caused damage in villages in Iran where state TV said at least six people had been killed.
Footage posted on Facebook by Gulf News reader Syed Kazim Raza showed residents on the streets in Al Qusais 2 after the tremors were felt.
Watch the footage here:
Social media users said the quake was felt in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, UAE, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The U.S. Geological Survey issued an "orange" alert for "shaking-related fatalities and economic losses."
Iranian provinces in the northwestern, western and central areas of the country were impacted.
Iranian social media was abuzz with area people evacuating their homes.
Another Gulf News readers, Mohammad Majeed, took this video of Kuwait residents gathered outside their homes after feeling the aftershocks:
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Iraq after the quake, whose epicentre was in Penjwin, in Sulaimaniyah province which is in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region very close to the Iranian border, according to an Iraqi meteorology official.
But eight villages were damaged in Iran and at least six people were killed and many others injured in the border town of Qasr-e Shirin in Iran, Iranian state TV said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of 7.3, while an Iraqi meteorology official put its magnitude at 6.5 according to preliminary information.
Many residents in the Iraqi capital Baghdad rushed out of houses and tall buildings in panic.
“I was sitting with my kids having dinner and suddenly the building was just dancing in the air,” said Majida Ameer, who ran out of her building in the capital’s Salihiya district with her three children. “I thought at first that it was a huge bomb.
But then I heard everyone around me screaming ‘Earthquake!’” There were similar scenes in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, and across other cities in northern Iraq, close to the quake’s epicentre.
Iraq’s meteorology center advised people to stay away from buildings and not to use elevators, in case of aftershocks.
The quake was even felt in the Iranian capital Tehran, with some villages hit by power cuts, Iranian state TV reported.
“The quake was felt in several Iranian provinces bordering Iraq ... Eight villages were damaged ... Electricity has been cut in some villages and rescue teams have been dispatched to those areas,” TV reported.
Residents of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir also reported feeling a strong tremor, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the city.
Israeli media said the quake was felt in many parts of Israel too.
