Dozens Injured in Quake in Southwest Iran
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck southwest Iran near the town of Sisakht on Wednesday evening and at least 40 people were injured, national television said.
"People in Sisakht and the town of Yasuj left their homes in panic. Water and electricity have been cut off in Sisakht,” a local official in the province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad told the TV.
"Rescue teams and ambulances have been dispatched to the area...So far 10 people have been injured.”
The official news agency IRNA said the quake, felt in several cities and towns in the region, struck at a depth of 10 km (6 miles) at 10:05 p.m. local time (1835 GMT).
It caused "extensive damage to buildings, infrastructure and homes”, IRNA reported. According to a preliminary survey, "78 villages suffered serious damage with some houses completely destroyed”, it said.
The magnitude of the quake was sufficiently large that most villagers spent the night out in the open for fear of aftershocks, it added.
Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity. In June, a quake near Mount Damavand, Iran’s highest peak, killed one person and injured more than 20 just east of the capital Tehran.
Last February, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that rattled the western village of Habash-e Olya killed at least nine people over the border in neighboring Turkey. Iran’s deadliest quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the north of the country, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless.
"People in Sisakht and the town of Yasuj left their homes in panic. Water and electricity have been cut off in Sisakht,” a local official in the province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad told the TV.
"Rescue teams and ambulances have been dispatched to the area...So far 10 people have been injured.”
The official news agency IRNA said the quake, felt in several cities and towns in the region, struck at a depth of 10 km (6 miles) at 10:05 p.m. local time (1835 GMT).
It caused "extensive damage to buildings, infrastructure and homes”, IRNA reported. According to a preliminary survey, "78 villages suffered serious damage with some houses completely destroyed”, it said.
The magnitude of the quake was sufficiently large that most villagers spent the night out in the open for fear of aftershocks, it added.
Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity. In June, a quake near Mount Damavand, Iran’s highest peak, killed one person and injured more than 20 just east of the capital Tehran.
Last February, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that rattled the western village of Habash-e Olya killed at least nine people over the border in neighboring Turkey. Iran’s deadliest quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the north of the country, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless.