Teheran, Iran -Monday, November 13, 2017 -(TerraUS, mhUSA)-
At least 414 people were killed and almost 6,500 others injured after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck near Iran ' s border with Iraq, authorities said Monday.

Rescuers were trying to find survivors trapped under collapsed buildings but their efforts were hindered in many places by landslides. More than 100 aftershocks were registered, according to Iranian officials.

Many houses in rural areas of Iran are made of mud bricks that can crumble easily in a quake. Iranian authorities said the quake killed 407 people with at least 5,953 were injured. Iraq ' s Interior Ministry confirmed that seven people in the neighboring country were killed by the quake, with 535 people wounded.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 9:18 p.m. local time (1:18 p.m. ET) Sunday. It measured the quake at a magnitude 7.3.

It was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast. The quake ' s worst damage appeared to be in the town of Sarpol-e-Zahab in Kermanshah province, which sits in the Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq.

Kokab Fard, a 49-year-old housewife in Sarpol-e-Zahab, told The Associated Press she could only flee empty-handed when her apartment complex collapsed.

"Immediately after I managed to get out, the building collapsed," Fard said. "I have no access to my belongings."

The head of Iranian Red Crescent said more than 70,000 people were in need of emergency shelter.

Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the University of Southampton in England, said that in a region where earthquakes are common, Sunday ' s quake appeared to be the largest in "a long time."