The death toll from yesterday's 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck the border region between Iran and Iraq on Sunday has risen to 213. 

Spokesman for Iran’s National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO), Behnam Saeedi, said on the state television that at least 207 people were killed and more than 1,700 injured in Iran alone. 

The Legal Medical Organization of Kermanshah has also confirmed that it received 207 bodies. 

Iran's emergency services chief, Pir Hossein Koolivand said most of the victims were in the town of Sarpol-e Zahab. 

The head of Iran's Red Crescent Organisation, Morteza Salim, said damage was reported in at least eight villages.The worst-hit towns in Iran were Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah and Azgaleh, about 40 kilometres northwest. 

Officials said the casualty toll may rise when search and rescue teams reached remote areas. 

On the Iraqi side of the border, six persons were killed and around 150 injured in the quake. Iraqi officials said the quake had killed six people in Sulaimaniyah province. 

The most extensive damage was in the town of Darbandikhan, 75 kilometres east of the city of Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdistan Region. Kurdish Health Minister Rekawt Hama Rasheed said the situation is very critical.

According to US Geological Survey (USGS) the powerful quake hit close to Halabjah, southeast of Sulaymaniyah, a city in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. 

The quake and its aftershocks have been felt in many Iranian provinces. The quake was also felt in Turkey, Kuwait, Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Israel too.

Source : AIR