TMCnet News
LEAD: 70 killed, 1,200 injured in Iran quake: report+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TEHRAN, March 31_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING DEATH TOLL, ADDING INFO) At least 70 people were killed and more than 1,200 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 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. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered authorities to send as many relief supplies as possible to the quake-hit region. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is visiting Britain, told reporters Washington is ready to extend humanitarian aid to Iranian victims. The United States and Iran remain at odds over Tehran's nuclear program which the West, including the United States, says is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Japanese Embassy in Tehran said no Japanese nationals were staying in Lorestan Province. In the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Kerman Province, 30,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake in December 2003. |