Dozens killed and injured in earthquake on Iran-Türkiye border
On the morning of March 25, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck northern West Azerbaijan and the Van province of Turkey, causing damage. Dozens of people were injured in Iran, several villages were severely damaged, and at least eight people died in Turkey.
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, at 9:23 am this morning, Sunday, March 24, an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale shook the city of Qatur Khoy in northern West Azerbaijan.
The epicenter of this earthquake was 17 kilometers from Qatur, 31 kilometers from Khoy, and 115 kilometers from the city of Urmia. According to the Seismological Center of the Geophysics Institute of the University of Tehran, it occurred at a depth of six kilometers.
Based on statistics published so far, houses and buildings in 43 villages in the cities of Khoy and Salmas have been damaged.
Ismail Salem Khoei, secretary of the Khoy Crisis Management Headquarters, told IRNA on Sunday afternoon that 30 people have been injured so far due to damage caused by the earthquake, and this number is expected to increase.
He said the injured have been identified in villages in the epicenter of the earthquake and transferred to medical centers. Salem Khoei described the damage to seven villages in the region as significant.
Amir Abbas Jafari, Director General of West Azerbaijan Crisis Management, put the extent of damage in earthquake-hit villages at between 10 and 100 percent, saying that no reports of possible casualties have been received so far and that many of the injured have suffered "minor fractures."
At least eight killed in Van, Türkiye
The Qatur region is located near one of the border crossings between Iran and Turkey. The Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu as saying that eight people from the Baskaleh district of Van province were killed in the earthquake.
The Turkish Interior Minister also reported that five other people were injured in the village and said that some may still be under the rubble.
The Turkish Presidential Office's Public Relations Office announced in a statement that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in contact with the Minister of Interior to update him on the relief efforts for earthquake victims in Van province and the situation in the region.
