Tehran, March 31: Three strong earthquakes followed by several aftershocks jolted western Iran overnight and early on Friday, killing at least 66 people and injuring at least 1,000 and more, State media reported.The initial quake of magnitude 4.7 struck a mountainous region in western Iran late on Thursday. It was followed by a quake of magnitude 5.1 that struck Boroujerd and Doroud, two industrial cities in western Iran, at 11.06 pm local time on Thursday, State television said.
A third temblor of magnitude 6.0 hit Doroud and surrounding villages at 4.47 am local time on Friday, the television reported.In all, 12 aftershocks had been registered since the first quake, said Nabi Bidhendi, head of Tehran University’s Geophysics Institute. The quake in the middle of the night caused panic, with citizens in Doroud running out of their homes.
Many spent the night in open space, residents said. “We are afraid to get back home. I spent the night with my family and guests in open space last night,” Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri said. Such quakes have killed thousands of people in the past in the Iranian countryside where houses are often built of bricks, but did not initially appear to cause such widespread devastation this time, Mr Chaharmiri said.
The epicentre was in the mountainous villages south of Boroujerd and north of Doroud in western Iran. The US Geological Survey reported a 5.7-magnitude quake at 4.47 am, followed by a 4.7-magnitude 15 minutes later. Their epicentres were 210 miles southwest of Tehran. The area had been hit by a 4.7-magnitude quake the day before, the USGS said.
A total of 50 bodies had been pulled out of destroyed houses in Silakhor, a region north of Doroud, State television said. Most of the 850 people injured were in bed when the quake struck. In all, 200 villages were damaged by the quake, some of them totally flattened, said provincial official Ali Barani. Mr Barani told IRNA that rescue teams had been sent to the region to help the survivors. He said survivors were in urgent need of blankets, tents and food.
First television images of the quake showed survivors standing next to their destroyed houses in villages north of Doroud. The television also showed dozens of sheep and goats killed by the quake. Mr Barani said hospitals in the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd were full to their capacity and could not receive further injured, the television reported. Officials also called on doctors and nurses on leave to get back to work to help treat the injured.
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