Magnitude 5.8 quake hits southeast Iran, fourth temblor in two days
Four large tremors in two days rattle parts of Iran, which is still recovering from November’s magnitude 7.3 earthquake that killed 620 people.
Rocks are seen on the road after an earthquake near the Darbandikhan Dam, close the city of Sulaimaniyah, in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Iraq November 13, 2017. (Reuters Archive)
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook southeastern Iran early on Monday, following three earthquakes in the country on the previous day, including one that injured nearly 290 people in the west, state media reported.
“Up to now we only have reports of damage to some buildings and no casualties are reported,” Majid Saeedi, head of Kerman province’s crisis management body, told state television.
Rescue teams have been sent to 26 affected villages, Saeedi added.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.5, with its epicentre 37 kilometres east of Kerman city. It said it was very shallow, at a depth of only 10 kilometres, which would have amplified its effect.
On Sunday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit western Iran, injuring at least 287 people, hours after two quakes struck Hormozgan province in the south, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
Houshang Bazvand, governor of the affected province of Kermanshah, told IRNA that eight of the injured had been hospitalised and the rest were released after treatment.
State media said the two earlier earthquakes, with magnitudes of 4.7 and 5.7, had damaged buildings in a few villages without causing casualties.
Morteza Salimi, head of rescue at Iran’s Red Crescent, said damage from the two earlier quakes appeared to be light. “Reports indicate that some walls have collapsed, but extensive damage has not been reported,” Salimi told IRNA.
Iran is crisscrossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years.
Last November, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit western Kermanshah province, killing at least 620 people and injuring thousands.
In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in Kerman province killed 31,000 people and flattened the historic city of Bam.
Source: Reuters
