5.7 Magnitude Bojnurd Quake Kills 2, Injures Hundreds

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake near Iran’s border with Turkmenistan killed two people, injured hundreds and caused widespread damage, state media reported Sunday, citing the country’s seismological center. The quake struck at 10:30 pm local time on Saturday in and around the city of Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, leaving more than 400 people injured and damaging as many as 40% of houses in the area. The victims are a 54-year-old woman and a teenage girl, according to local news outlets. The Geophysics Institute of Tehran University said it occurred at a depth of 12.5 kilometers with its epicenter just 50 km from the border with Turkmenistan. Search and rescue teams, including Iranian Red Crescent Society relief workers, have been sent to the region and are currently attending to the injured and searching for survivors. The region is on an active fault line stretching from Turkmenistan’s capital Ashkhabad into Iran’s three provinces of north, central (Razavi) and south Khorasan.