Project Location | Middle East, Iran, Sarepol E Zahab
Production Date | 2017-11-12
7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Kermanshah Province of Iran at 22:20 on 12 November. More than 400 people have been killed and thousands more are reported to be injured. The province of Kermanshah was the most affected area along with the cities of Halabja, Iraq and Sarpol-e Zahab being the hardest-hit. More than half of the Iranian casualties were from Sarpol-e-Zahab and the Ezgeleh District, which have a combined population of over 30,000. 630 people died.
More than 7,000 others were injured. In Sarpol-e Zahab, the hospital was damaged and at least 142 people were killed, many who had lived in social housing complexes built by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nearly 5,000 people in Kermanshah province are still unable to return to their homes two years after the quake struck. Some are living in shipping containers converted into makeshift dwellings. Others are in unmarked white tents bought from local stores or distributed by emergency responders in the early days of the crisis. Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. More than 180,000 people have been killed by the country’s quakes in the last century, and the frequency has increased sharply in recent years.
