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5.7-magnitude quake kills 7, injures 45 in south Iran

28 November 2013 21:52 (UTC +04:00)

Fereydoun Hassanvand, governor of Bushehr Province, said on Thursday the injured have been transported to various hospitals in the port cities of Bushehr and Genaveh to receive medical treatment.

He added that rescue teams, medical staff as well as law enforcement forces have been dispatched to the quake-stricken area.

According to the Iranian Seismological Center, the quake hit Borazjan, located 715 kilometers (444 miles) south of the Iranian capital, Tehran, at 5:21 p.m. local time (1351 GMT) on Thursday.

Its epicenter was located at 29.29 degrees of northern latitude and 51.37 degrees of eastern longitude, at a depth of five kilometers.

The strong earthquake was followed by at least five aftershocks, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 3.4.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

A major quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale shook a sparsely-populated rural area between the cities of Saravan and Khash in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan at a depth of 95 kilometers on April 16. The quake was unprecedented in the past 50 years.

The deadliest earthquake to hit Iran in recent years happened on December 26, 2003, when a 6.6-magnitude quake struck Bam city and the surrounding areas in the southeastern province of Kerman, leaving tens of thousands of people dead and injured.