Villagers gathered at a hilltop cemetery at dawn today to bury their dead 24 hours after a powerful earthquake in northwestern Iran flattened hundreds of villages, killing at least 220 people.

A strong earthquake rocked north-western Iran today, killing at least 500 people and injuring about 1,600, Iran’s state-run media reported.

At least 200 people have been killed in an earthquake in western Iran, the official news agency reported today.