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Published on : Monday, November 26, 2018
The quake struck Kermanshah province yesterday, with an epicentre 17 kilometres (11 miles) southwest of the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, according to the country’s institute of geophysics.
State television, citing the emergency services, said that 716 people had been injured, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage.
State TV showed images of cracked walls inside homes, but said only 33 of those injured remained in hospital as of today morning.
The initial quake, around seven kilometres deep, was followed by several aftershocks including one with a magnitude of 5.2.
Morteza Salimi, an official with Iran’s Red Crescent Society, said most of casualties had been injured in a stampede sparked by the first tremors.
News agency journalists reported feeling the quake as far away as Baghdad in neighbouring Iraq.
Speaking to the media on Sunday Salimi said that the quake had rocked areas newly rebuilt after a 7.3-magnitude tremor last November that killed 620 people and injured thousands more.
Iran sits on top of two major tectonic plates and sees frequent seismic activity.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude tremor struck the southeast of the country, decimating the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killing at least 31,000 people.
The deadliest such incident to hit the country was a 7.4-magnitude quake in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in northern Iran, injured 300,000 and left half a million others homeless.
Tags: 7.4-magnitude quake, western Iran