IRAN EARTHQUAKE: DEATH TOLL RISES TO 450

After Sunday's massive earthquake in Iran, the homeless had to huddle against the cold late on Monday, a day after at least 450 people were killed. Rescue teams kept up search operations for dozens trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed houses in towns and villages in the mountainous area of the western province of Kermanshah that borders Iraq. 

Iran's English-language Press TV said more than 450 people were killed an 7,000 were injured when the magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted the country on Sunday. Local officials expect the death toll to climb as search and rescue teams reached remote areas of Iran. 

Iranian state television said the earthquake had caused heavy damage in some villages where houses were made of eastern bricks. At least 14 provinces in Iran had been affected, a woman and her baby were pulled out alive from the rubble on Monday in Sapol-e Zahab – the worst hit area with a population of 85,000, the Iranian media reported. 

Electricity and water were cut off in several Iranian and Iraqi cities, and fears of aftershocks sent thousands of people in both countries out onto the streets and parks in the cold weather. 

Across the area, rescue workers and special teams using sniffer dogs and heat sensors searched the wreckage. Blocked roads made it difficult for rescue workers to reach some remote villages. 

A local official said aftershocks slowed down erecting tents for homeless people but electricity had been restored in most of the quake-hit areas.

“The main problem is sheltering people from this cold weather. We need more tents,” Qasr-e Shririn governor Faramarz Akbari told TV.

Check out the video below to see the earthquake caught live on the news in two different locations.