TEHRAN -- A 5.4 magnitude earthquake in northwestern Iran injured more than 500 people early Wednesday, most of them lightly, local officials said.
“The quake that hit at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in West Azarbaijan province has injured 528 people, 135 of whom have been admitted to hospital,“ the region’s governor Muhammad Sadeq Motamedian said.
The quake and its aftershocks “damaged 500 houses, completely destroying 50 of them, in 12 affected villages,” he added.
National television aired footage of stores damaged and homes destroyed in the 3:30 am (0000 GMT) quake.
National emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi said that “electricity and water have been cut in some villages” near the cities of Salmas and Khoy, which lie close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.