Death toll rises in Gilan snow accidents; 65% of homes have water and electricity outages

Reports from northern Iran indicate that the number of people killed by heavy snowfall in Gilan has increased to eight and the number of injured in these incidents to 112.

Meanwhile, according to a member of parliament, electricity is still out in 65 percent of homes and water is still out in 70 percent of residential units.

According to the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation, a 55-year-old man fell while clearing snow from the roof of his house in the village of Lask Shaft and died from his severe injuries.

In the past few days, snowfall and avalanches in Gilan left seven dead and 78 injured.

On Wednesday evening, the number of injured people in snowfall-related accidents in Gilan Province reached 112.

Esmail Najjar, head of Iran's Crisis Management Organization, said on Wednesday that the snow depth in some areas is more than 70 centimeters.

Heavy snowfall that began in various regions of Gilan province on Sunday evening caused water and electricity outages in various cities and the closure of the Rasht-Qazvin freeway and some other main and rural roads.

Meanwhile, Hossein Mohammadpour, head of the Gilan traffic police, said that the Tehran-Rasht road has not yet been fully reopened.

Mehrdad Lahoti, a representative from Langrud in the parliament, also said that all rural roads in the province are closed and there is no information available from the people in the villages.

He said that electricity is still out in 65 percent of homes and water is still out in 70 percent of residential units.

According to Mr. Lahoti, even though the snowfall was predicted two weeks in advance, the province's crisis management "acted poorly."

At 2:23 p.m. on Wednesday, a 4.5-magnitude earthquake shook the city of Ahmad Sargorab in Shaft County, but there were no casualties.

Snow has caused road closures in some other provinces of Iran, including Ardabil.

The Ardabil Red Crescent Society announced on Wednesday that 751 people were given emergency housing in the past 48 hours.

Ali Rahmati, Director General of the Ardabil Provincial Roads Department, also said that roads to 800 villages have been opened, but roads to 255 villages are still closed.

Also, according to the Iranian Broadcasting Agency, roads to 400 villages in East Azerbaijan province are closed.

Source: Radio Farda