TMCnet News
50 killed, 800 injured in Iran quake: report+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TEHRAN, March 31_(Kyodo) _ At least 50 people were killed and 800 others injured when a strong earthquake hit a province in midwestern Iran on Friday, state media reported. The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 rocked Lorestan Province around 4:50 a.m. Many houses were reportedly destroyed and local authorities are engaged in rescuing people trapped under the debris. The epicenter of the temblor was in the mountainous areas near Doroud and Boroujerd. The earthquake followed relatively strong quakes that had shook the region from late Thursday to early Friday morning. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ali Barani, head of the Natural Disasters Headquarters in the province, as saying that all the villages in Dasht Silakhor, a region between Doroud and Boroujerd, were damaged. In the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Kerman Province, 30,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake in December 2003. |