At least 5 dead after magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits southern Iran – National

At least five people were killed in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in southern Iran early Saturday, state media reported, with the area also being hit by two subsequent powerful tremors measuring up to 6.3 magnitude.

“Five people have died in the earthquake… and so far 12 have been hospitalized,” Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of emergency management in Hormozgan province on Iran’s Gulf Coast, told state television. “The rescue work has been carried out and we are now providing tents as emergency shelters.”

State news agency IRNA said a 6.3-magnitude earthquake and a 6.1-magnitude quake followed the 6.1-magnitude quake that flattened the village of Sayeh Khosh near Iran’s Gulf Coast. There were more than a dozen aftershocks.

“All victims died in the first earthquake and no one was injured in the next two major tremors as people were already outside their homes,” Foad Moradzadeh, governor of Bandar Lengeh country, said as quoted by the state news agency IRNA.

Major geological fault lines criss-cross Iran, which has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in Kerman province killed 31,000 people and destroyed the ancient city of Bam.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese, Sandra Maler and Kenneth Maxwell)

1:54
At least 1,000 dead after devastating earthquake in Afghanistan