At least one person was killed and 241 were injured when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck near the western city of Kermanshah early Sunday, according to local media.
The quake hit at 2:43 a.m. local time at a depth of 8 kilometers, IRNA reported, citing the Iranian Seismological Center. The majority of the casualties were in Tazehabad, capital of Salas-e Babajani County.
Mehrdad Salari, a senior provincial official, said an elderly man died of heart attack in the midst of the earthquake but dismissed reports that the death of a pregnant woman in Eslamabad-e Gharb was related to the tremor.
Minor Injuries
Most of the injured were treated as outpatients and eight people were hospitalized.
The official said four buildings were completely destroyed amaged and 500 old housing units were partially damaged.
Earlier, Morteza Salimi, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society’s Relief and Rescue Organization, told IRNA that two people, a 70-year-old man and a pregnant woman, died as a result of the natural disaster.
He said relief and rescue workers and disaster assessment teams had been sent to the affected areas.
The US Geological Survey reported that a shallow, magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck about 88 kilometers from Kermanshah, Reuters reported.
Baghdad Shakes
The quake was felt as far away as Baghdad, according to Iraqi state television, which also said there were no injuries.
Iran is crisscrossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years.
Last November, a 7.3 magnitude quake struck villages and towns in Kermanshah Province, along the mountainous border with Iraq, killing over 500 people and injuring thousands of others. It was Iran’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.
In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in Kerman Province killed nearly 30,000 people and flattened the historic city of Bam.
