Quake in north-western Iran kills at least 6, injures 300

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.8 quake struck at 2:17 a.m. (2247 GMT) 83 km southwest of Ardabil. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM USGS

DUBAI (REUTERS, AFP) - An earthquake in north-western Iran killed at least six people and injured more than 300 early on Friday (Nov 8), according to Iranian media reports quoting officials.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.8 quake struck at 2.17am 83km south-west of Ardabil in East Azerbaijan province..

Iran's IRNA news agency said the tremor was relatively strong and was followed by more than 60 aftershocks, causing many people to run out of their homes in panic in the middle of the night.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said the quake was felt by some 20 million people.

The quake had a shallow depth of 10km, which would have amplified the shaking.

Provincial governor, Mohammad-Reza Pourmohammadi, told local media that at least 30 houses had been destroyed.

"Rescue teams and helicopters have been dispatched to the quake-hit areas and hospitals are on full alert to help injured people. Unfortunately six people were killed and 345 were injured," Iran's emergency medical services chief Pirhossein Kolivand told state TV.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued an alert warning that "significant casualties are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread".

Iran sits where two major tectonic plates meet and experiences frequent seismic activity.

The country has suffered a number of major disasters in recent decades, including at the ancient city of Bam, which was decimated by a catastrophic earthquake in 2003 that killed at least 31,000 people.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake in northern Iran killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless, reducing dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.

Iran has experienced at least two other significant quakes in recent years - one in 2005 that killed more than 600 people and another in 2012 that left some 300 dead.

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