Strong Earthquake Kills 2, Injures 210 in Northeast of Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit the city of Bojnourd in North Khorasan, a province northeast of Iran, killing two people and injuring more than 210 others, a local official said.
“Unfortunately, two people were killed in the villages of Langar and Qasr-e Qajar as a result of the incident,” Hossein Azimi, the director general of the province’s Crisis Management Center, said.
He added that initial reports suggest that the quake has also left some 210 people wounded, who have all received treatment at outpatient clinics across the province.
Other reports put the death toll higher saying that so far 3 people have been killed and 220 other injured following the quake.
About 12 villages have suffered more than 50 percent damage following the 5.7-magnitute earthquake on Saturday night, Azimi further said. Meantime, 27 aftershocks have rattled Bojnourd.
He also said rescue teams are combing through cracked buildings looking for more casualties and helping the injured.
Local officials have noted that the earthquake’s aftermath has blocked access to several villages. They have noted that locals have been asked to sleep outdoors over the probability of aftershocks.
Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.
The deadliest quake in Iran's modern history happened in June 1990. It destroyed the northern cities of Rudbar, Manjil, and Lushan, along with hundreds of villages, killing an estimated 37,000 people.
Bam in the country’s southeastern province of Kerman witnessed a strong quake in December 2003 which killed 31,000 people.
