TEHRAN — A powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the region along the border between Iran and Iraq on Sunday, killing more than 140 people in Iran, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency said.
The report Monday morning said 141 had been killed in cities and towns in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah.
IRNA also said more than 860 people were injured.
It said rescuers worked through the night and the operations would be accelerated during the day.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centered 19 miles outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja.
Iran sits on many major fault lines and is prone to quakes. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people.
Iranian state TV said Iraqi officials had reported six deaths and 200 injuries inside Iraq, though there was no official comment from Iraq’s government.
The Iraq casualties were reported in Sulaymaniyah province and the city of Khanaquin. No reports were immediately available from Iraq’s government.
Pirhossein Koulivand, Iran’s head of emergency medical services, told a local television station that the earthquake knocked out electricity in Iran’s western cities of Mehran and Ilam. He also said 35 rescue teams were providing assistance.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in a phone call with the Interior Ministry emphasized the need for maximum effort from officials.
Iranian social media was abuzz Sunday night with posts of people evacuating their homes, particularly in Kermanshah and Ghasr-e Shirin.
The semiofficial Iranian ILNA news agency said at least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected by the earthquake, which was felt in Baghdad.
Officials announced that schools in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces would be closed Monday.
On Sunday night, a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 shook Costa Rica, knocking items from shelves and sending people rushing outside in panic.
The country’s Public Safety Ministry said there were reports of two serious injuries as a result of the quake, but did not provide additional details.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered along Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast about 10 miles southeast of Jaco, which is about 60 miles southwest of the capital, San Jose.
Matt Hogan was at home in Punta Uvita, about a 90-minute drive down the coast from the epicenter, when the earthquake hit around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, He said the shaking whipped up 2-foot waves in his swimming pool and knocked over glasses and containers in the kitchen.
In Mexico City last week, officials said the city plans to expropriate the lot where a seven-story office building collapsed during the Sept. 19 earthquake, and will use it to erect a memorial to quake victims.
Forty-nine bodies were pulled from the rubble of the building near the city’s center. That was the largest single death toll among the 38 buildings felled by the quake. There were 228 deaths in the city, and 369 people died in the region.
The city’s legal counsel said the victims’ families would have a voice on what the memorial looks like.
Mexico City has decided to demolish at least 58 more buildings badly damaged by the quake, but the work is technically and legally complicated and is going slowly. Demolition has started at only about five sites.
Authorities are still studying about 55 other damaged buildings to decide whether they can be reinforced or will need to be demolished.
Hundreds of apartment dwellers are in limbo because detailed studies about whether their buildings are safe haven’t been completed.
Material from the New York Times was used in this report.
