Magnitude 6.4 Quake Leaves over 630 Injured in Western Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 630 people were injured after an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck western Iran near the border with Iraq on Sunday night.
According to Tehran’s Institute of Geophysics, the quake struck 17 km west of the city of Sarpol-e-Zahab, 18 km from Qasr-e Shirin and 33 km from the city of Gilan-e-Gharb in Kermanshah province.
The institute put the magnitude of the quake at 6.4. It was followed by a number of aftershocks ranging from 3-5.2 degrees on the Richter scale.
The tremor was also felt in most cities in Iran's Kermanshah and Ilam provinces as well as in Tabriz and Urmia, the capital cities of East and West Azarbaijan provinces, respectively.
It also jolted the Iraqi capital Baghdad and Kuwait.
Some 630 people were injured following the quake and its aftershocks.
“…No fatalities have been reported,” Houshang Bazvand, governor of Kermanshah province, told state TV.
“No reports of any fatalities yet and most of the injured were hurt while fleeing, not due to quake damage,” Pir-Hossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s emergency services, also confirmed.
Iran, which sits on several geological fault lines, is prone to earthquakes and suffers a quake per day on average.
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam in south Iran and killed 26,000 people in 2003.
