Massive Quake Shakes Southeastern Iran

Tehran: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Iran's southeastern province of Kerman today, the Iranian seismological centre reported, though media reported minimal damage. A woman was taken to hospital for injuries in the town of Ravar, and old houses in six villages were damaged, Fars news agency quoted the country's emergency services chief as saying an hour after the quake.

It struck at 12:13 pm (0843 GMT) with the epicentre near the town of Hejdak, some 50 kilometres north of the provincial capital of Kerman and about 800 kilometres from Tehran. It was measured as magnitude 5.9 by the US Geological Survey and several smaller aftershocks were reported.

Schools were closed in some areas of the province, ISNA news agency reported. Iran sits on several faultlines, and today's quake comes less than a day after a 6.0-magnitude tremor struck the western province of Kermanshah along the border with Iraq.

On November 12, Kermanshah was hit by a major 7.3- magnitude quake that killed 620 people according to the latest toll provided yesterday by Tasnim news agency. Iran's worst quake in recent years struck near the city of Bam in 2003, which saw the ancient city decimated by a 6.6 -magnitude tremor that killed at least 31,000 people.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake in northern Iran killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless, reducing dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble. Iran has experienced at least two other major disasters in recent years -- one in 2005 that killed more than 600 people and another in 2012 that left some 300 dead. (PTI)