Strong Quake Jolts Southern Iran, No Casualties Reported
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted an area in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan on Monday but there are no reports of casualties or damages, a provincial official said.
The temblor hit an area near the city of Ruydar in Khamir County, Hormozgan Province, at 1:34 a.m. (local time) on Monday.
The epicenter of the quake with a depth of 16 km was located at 30 km from Ruydar and 38 km from Bandar Khamir.
The head of the province’s Crisis Management Department said several teams were immediately dispatched to the quake-hit area to assess the damages and casualties.
He added that, fortunately, there were no casualties and the damages inflicted on the houses in the area are trivial.
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.
On November 12, 2017, the western province of Kermanshah was hit by a major 7.3-magnitude quake that killed 620 people.
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.