Extremely dangerous earthquake below Murmuri, Ilan province, Iran – felt in Kuwait – at least 60 injured

Last update: August 18, 2014 at 5:43 am

Earthquake-report
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Update 05:32 UTC : A VERY STRONG aftershock of M5.7 just happened and has been felt until Kuwait. This aftershock will make the havoc even worse. Lets hope that no rescue personnel will have been injured while trying to help other people.

Update 05:29 UTC : A further increase to 60 injuries

Update 05:15 UTC : New data from the rescue agencies. So far 51 people injured. 3 of the injured are in critical condition. 25 people are treated in a hospital

Update 05:05 UTC : We are getting reports that 8 villages are severely damaged (luckily this is a sparsely populated area)

Update 04:52 UTC : Injury toll increased to 50 – huge damage and rescue helicopters have been send to the Murmuri area

Update 04:46 UTC : The director of the Red Crescent agency in the Ilam province said that a lot of infrastructure has been damaged (roads to Murmuri are closed to normal traffic). He told reporters that until now 40 people were injured and he reiterates what we already said earlier, that the 2 Sunday earthquakes might have been the luck of the people as many stayed outside their houses.

Update 04:42 UTC  : Iranian Mehrnews wrote a little while ago : Six rescue teams are deployed to the region to evaluate damages and casualties. There are no reports of exact number of casualties yet. Mehrnews correspondent in the nearby region says roads to the quake-stricken area are closed and so far 20 people have been injured and some buildings are damaged.  Earlier, less than 12 hours before that, another quake with 5.0 magnitude had stricken same area with its epicenter just 10 kilometers away. Several tremors have shaken the region since Sunday afternoon local time.

Update 04:35 UTC : The earthquake was felt until Kuwait. There are currently a lot of aftershocks in the epicenter area

Update 04:28 UTC :  The governor of the Iran, Ilam province reports that that many houses have been damaged.
The number of injured people we has risen to 40, 7 of them have been transported to a nearby hospital.
We expect that most people have stayed outside their houses due to 2 prior moderate earthquakes in exactly the same area yesterday.
The good news is also that search and rescue personnel will have been already in Murmuri due to the other earthquakes yesterday.

Update 04:18 UTC : So far we have detected 6 injuries (first report but the numbers will certainly increase), more details later

Update 04:17 UTC : According the GDACS the population density in regard to the epicenter is as follows :
100 km    1.1 million people
75 km    400000 people
50 km    140000 people
20 km    6300 people
10 km    1700 people
5 km    <1000 br="" people=""> 2 km    <1000 br="" people=""> ER expects a radius of 20 km vulnerable for huge damage (about 6300 people)

Update 04:01 UTC : At the 2006 census, the population of Murmuri, the town just on top of the epicenter was 3,491, in 684 families

Landscape in the direct epicenter area – Image courtesy and copyright Ali Majdfar

Update 03:49 UTC : ER calls Murmuri as a huge risk for collapsed houses. Damage would certainly extend tot a radius of 50 km which means that towns like Mosian and Dehloran would deal in the misery but we do however not expect fatalities in these cities.

Update 03:46 UTC : The Iranian seismological agency has reported a Mn6.1 at a depth of 10 km, alarming numbers.
The distance from nearby villages is as follows :
3 Km of Murmuri, Ilam
36 Km of Mosian, Ilam
41 Km of Dehloran, Ilam

Update 03:38 UTC : Prof. Max Wyss has calculated a theoretical number of 20 to 400 people injured and 0 to 200 fatalities. We expect a lot of serious damage with at least a lot of collapsed houses.

Update : No precise numbers yet of the injured and the damage. Normally they would look very dark en grim as a +M6 earthquake in Iran would be almost certainly turn deadly however this earthquake might be different. Reason : 2 other earthquakes yesterday measuring M4.6 and M5.0. We expect that most people have stayed outside their houses out of aftershocks fear which would be their lucky chance to escape a tragedy.

36km (22mi) SE of Abdanan, Iran
37km (23mi) E of Dehloran, Iran
78km (48mi) WNW of Dezful, Iran
81km (50mi) NW of Shush, Iran
312km (194mi) ESE of Baghdad, Iraq