mountain Archives - Iran News Daily

Avalanche in Turkey Kills 38

reporter 1222 — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 05:28:28 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – An avalanche slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, wiping out a huge team of rescue workers sent to find people missing in an earlier avalanche. Officials said 33 emergency workers were killed, 53 were injured and others were buried under the snow.

Wednesday’s avalanche in Turkey increased the overall death toll from the disaster to 38, AP reported.

Some 300 emergency service workers were called to a highway near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahcesaray in Van Province, which borders Iran after an avalanche struck late Tuesday. That snow slide killed five people and left two missings. Around noon Wednesday, the team was struck by the second avalanche.

Turkey’s emergency and disaster management agency, AFAD, said 33 bodies were recovered from the mass of snow on the steep slope. Earlier, Gov. Mehmet Emin Bilmez said the dead included eight military police officers, three government-paid village guards, three firefighters, and nine volunteers.

Emergency teams were still searching for other colleagues under the snow, Bilmez said. He did not provide a figure of how many more could be missing.

Some 30 emergency workers were either pulled out of the heap of snow or escaped themselves and were hospitalized Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

Video from the scene showed at least three overturned vehicles at the bottom of a hill during a snowstorm. Some rescuers struggled to climb out of a steep incline while others dug frantically into the snow with shovels and pick-axes. Fog, heavy snow, and strong winds hampered the rescue efforts.

The head of AFAD’s operations in Van Province, Osman Ucar, was among those injured. Speaking from his hospital bed, he said he was dragged along with an excavator that was toppled by the sliding snow.

“I was half-buried,” he said, adding that he escaped on his own.

The first avalanche buried a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus. The vehicle’s operator and seven passengers escaped alive.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the driver, Bahattin Karagulle, was trapped beneath the snow for 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape. He walked toward a village to get help before being picked up by a passing vehicle.

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Snowy Azna: A Tunnel in The Mountain Wilderness

reporter 1222 — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 19:00:43 +0000

Azna is a snowy tunnel measuring 800 meters in length. It is an amazing scenery of Iran and a natural landscape of Azna town in Lorestan Province, western Iran.

The town of Azna is at a distance of 82kms from the center of the Province, at the foothills of Oshtorankouh range of mountains. Osthorankouh Azna is the birthplace of natural wonders and the most beautiful wildlife. It is a rare collection of creation.

High peaks scratch the surface of the murky sky to let the rays of sun shine through the Rocky Mountains on the age old snow and take a thousand colors like a fanciful flight.

The deep valleys encircle the town like a child in its mother’s lap and call out to nature lovers to come to their loving side.

“Azna Darreh” is one of Oshtorankouh’s most picturesque valleys. Together with its vegetation, birds, wildlife, springs, and snow-filled rivers, it is encircled with high, daunting Rocky Mountains.

One of the valleys leading to Oshtorankouh peak is covered in snow all year, every year, from the year before, and new snow in the winter. In the spring and summer, the snow softens and water begins to flow underneath the top snow in the valley.

Azna snow tunnel has taken shape by thousands of tons of snowfall throughout the years. The gradual melting of snow is music to the ears of its visitors. This is a tunnel created by nature. It is most visited in the spring and summer by sightseers traveling to this picture perfect nature.

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A mountain village built on rooftops

reporter 1222 — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 09:10:51 +0000

Sar-e Aqa Seyyed is a village in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiyari province, western Iran. Earth-colored houses are stacked on top of one another so that the roof of one house forms the pathway for the next.

The village is named after Aqa Seyyed shrine. Most of the houses are windowless and only have doors. The village has a population of around 3,000 who are mostly living on husbandry and agriculture. They are very hardworking. Unfortunately, Aqa Seyyed lacks any development infrastructure such as asphalted roads or communication facilities.

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