At least six people have died and many injured after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit Iraq’s Kurdish region near the Iranian border.
The strong quake hit large parts of northern Iraq and the capital Baghdad on Sunday, and also caused damage in villages across the border in Iran.
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.
An Audi is buried under a pile of rubble in an earthquake that killed at least 10 people in Iran and Iraq
Three men inspect the damage in the Kurdistan region tonight as a building appears to have collapsed
Rubble lies in the street after the earthquake hit 200 miles away from Baghdad, which still felt the tremors
A building can be seen (left) destroyed by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake which injured at least 50 people (right)
A car is buried under a pile of bricks in the massive earthquake that shook Iran and Iraq
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.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck Iraq on Sunday rocking Baghdad more than 200 miles away. The epicentre was 103 km (64 miles) southeast of the city of As-Sulaymaniyah near the Iranian border
The windows to this supermarket are left completely shattered by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake
The destruction left behind by the earthquake is seen here as shards of glass litter the streets
The calm before the storm as people can be seen sitting in a cafe just moments before the earthquake hits
People ditch their tables and sprint out of the cafe, hurdling chairs and sofas to get to safety
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.