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Aid slow to reach quake-hit Iranian villages

Earthquake kills At least 432 people in Iran

By AFP - Nov 16,2017 - Last updated at Nov 16,2017

A photo taken on Wednesday shows Iranians sitting next to the rubble of their homes two days after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Kouik village near Sarpol-e Zahab in Iran’s western Kermanshah province near the border with Iraq (AFP photo)

KOUIK, Iran — Iranian survivors of a powerful earthquake that killed more than 400 people pleaded on Wednesday for water, tents and other emergency supplies as aid trickled into remote villages near the Iraqi border.

The government ordered rescuers to keep searching for people trapped under the rubble following the 7.3-magnitude quake which struck the mountainous region late Sunday, toppling buildings and leaving thousands homeless.

At least 432 people were killed in Iran, all in the western province of Kermanshah, and eight in Iraq, according to authorities in the two countries.

In total, nearly 8,200 people were reported to have been injured.

In villages north of the badly hit city of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab, a convoy of about 20 ambulances arrived with medicine while Red Crescent teams brought tents, water, food, and blankets.

But much of the assistance came from ordinary Iranians, some of whom travelled more than 100 kilometres from a neighbouring province.

"God bless them!" resident Abdol Gaderi, 45, said of the volunteers, but "we need running water, electricity and mobile toilets".

Villagers voiced fears of disease breaking out because of the corpses of animals under the rubble.

In Ghaleh Bahadori, where around 30 Red Crescent tents had been provided, residents pleaded for more help.

"This is not enough," said Tooraj Mohammadi, adding that most families in the village had been left homeless.

"Thirty people died here. We buried them ourselves in coordination with the police," he said.

In Iran alone, the quake is estimated to have caused damage of 26,000 billion Iranian rials (about $6.3 billion), Kermanshah provincial deputy governor Mojtaba Nikkerdar said, quoted by the ISNA news agency.

That is equivalent to about 1.5 per cent of the Iranian gross domestic product which the International Monetary Fund has forecast for 2017.

In total, about 30,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, according to the Iranian authorities.

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