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IRAN-EARTHQUAKE LEAD
More than 700 hurt in Iran quake
TEHRAN, Nov 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – More than 700 people were injured in a
6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook western Iran, state television reported
in an updated toll Monday.
The quake struck Kermanshah province late Sunday, with an epicentre 17
kilometres (11 miles) southwest of the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, according to
the country’s institute of geophysics.
State television, citing the emergency services, said that 716 people had
been injured, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage.
State TV showed images of cracked walls inside homes, but said only 33 of
those injured remained in hospital on Monday morning.
The initial quake, around seven kilometres deep, was followed by several
aftershocks including one with a magnitude of 5.2.
Morteza Salimi, an official with Iran’s Red Crescent Society, said most of
Sunday’s casualties had been injured in a stampede sparked by the first
tremors.
AFP journalists reported feeling the quake as far away as Baghdad in
neighbouring Iraq.
Salimi told semi-official news agency ISNA on Sunday that the quake had
rocked areas newly rebuilt after a 7.3-magnitude tremor last November that
killed 620 people and injured thousands more.
Iran sits on top of two major tectonic plates and sees frequent seismic
activity.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude tremor struck the southeast of the country,
decimating the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killing at least 31,000
people.
The country’s deadliest such incident was a 7.4-magnitude quake in 1990
that killed 40,000 people in northern Iran, injured 300,000 and left half a
million homeless.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1354 hrs