Magnitude 5 Quake in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari

Six people were wounded after a 5-magnitude earthquake struck Naghan City in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province on Sunday. Around 5,000 people live in the city.

According to the Seismography Center affiliated to Tehran University Geophysics Institute, the tremor occurred at 20:07 pm local time at a depth of 10 km. The province was jolted by a 3.5-magnitude aftershock following the quake. The tremor occurred 2 km from Naghan and 10 km from Ardal.

“We have all the emergency teams on standby and there is nothing to worry about the provision of aid,” Behnam Saeedi, spokesperson for the Crisis Management Organization, was quoted by ISNA as saying.

He said that assessment teams were sent to the quake-affected areas.

All hospitals, health centers and rescue teams are on standby, and six ambulances and three teams from the Iranian Red Crescent Society, comprising 15 rescue and relief staff, were deployed to the stricken areas, said Ahmad Mortazavi, head of the IRCS Office in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province.

Pictures posted by news outlets show deep cracks in buildings. Telephone lines and power in many affected areas were cut off in the early hours after the quake.

The quake also caused landslides which completely destroyed two residential units in the area.  

Iran sits astride several major seismic faults, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating. The worst in recent times hit Bam in Kerman Province in December 2003, killing 31,000 people - about a quarter of its population - and destroying the city’s ancient mud-built citadel.

The deadliest quake was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. Around 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. In August 2012, two quakes in northwest Iran claimed the lives of 306 people and injured more than 4,500 others.