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Avalanches kill 3, injure 2 in northern Iran

Friday, 03 February 2017 5:04 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 February 2017 12:42 PM ]

Rescue workers carrying out operations at the site of an avalanche in a village near the northern Iranian city of Damavand in Tehran Province on February 3, 2017. (Photo by Tasnim news agency)

At least three people have lost their lives and two others have been injured after a series of avalanches struck a village near the northern Iranian city of Damavand in Tehran Province, an official says.

Tehran's provincial deputy governor general Hassan Karimi told IRNA on Friday that two people who had been wounded were pulled out alive from beneath the snow.

He added that a number of cars were hit by the deadly avalanches on a nearby road early Friday but rescue and relief teams succeeded in retrieving four vehicles from under the snow.

He said the head of Road and Urban Development Organization of the cities of Roudehen and Pardis, Mohammad Ali Tolouie Moqaddam, who was in the area to help those trapped under snow, was among those who lost their lives.

Meanwhile, the managing director of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRSC) in Tehran Province, Hossein Ketabdar, also said that rescue and relief operations are ongoing and four sniffer dogs are now in the disaster-hit area.

He added that the IRCS teams provided accommodation for some 5,200 passengers in shelters, mosques and schools and helped thousands of others stuck in heavy snow.

Heavy snowfall started in Damavand on Thursday blocking multiple roads in the northern parts of Iran.

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