Avalanche, Heavy Snow in Northern Iran Kill 5, Injure 78
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The spokesperson for Iran’s National Emergency Service said five people have been killed in an avalanche triggered by heavy snow in the country’s northern province of Gilan.
Mojtaba Khaledi said late on Tuesday that the death toll from the avalanche in the northern city of Rudbar had risen to 5.
He added that 2 more people were killed in Rasht, which is the capital of Gilan province, and 78 others injured due to extreme weather conditions and snow-related incidents across the province.
Rescue teams have been dispatched to a key road north of the country where heavy snowfall has stranded thousands of people.
An official in Iran’s road transportation organization said that all passenger vehicles trapped on the Qazvin-Rasht Highway due to a traffic jam caused by snow will be helped to move from the road by late night on Tuesday.
Earlier reports in the Iranian media suggested that the snowfall and strong winds had dumped one meter of snow on the northernmost parts of the road near Rasht.
Others said the storm had left nearly 100,000 homes and businesses in Rasht, a city of more than 700,000 people, without power while causing outages in telephone and mobile communications.