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Earthquake Hits Western Iran, 300 Injured

By Orkhan Jalilov July 24, 2018

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At least 300 people in three western provinces of Iran have been injured during a series of earthquakes that hit the country between July 22 and 23. Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, as it sits over several major fault lines that cover at least 90 percent of its territory. / IRNA news agency

At least 300 people in three western provinces of Iran have been injured during a series of earthquakes that hit the country between July 22 and 23. 

“Sunday's 5.9-magnitude earthquake damaged 951 buildings in towns and villages in western Kermanshah, and injured 287 people,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported adding that the quakes did not cause deaths. Kermanshah is a region within Iran that borders Iraq.

According to Farhad Norouzi, the head of Kermanshah's seismographic center, the aftershocks occurred since the major earthquake rocked the provinces of Kermanshah, Kerman and Hormozgan on Sunday at 2:37 p.m. local time until 6:30 a.m. Monday morning.

Some 165 aftershocks were registered in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah almost within 16 hours after it was hit by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, Norouzi added.

The quake destroyed or damaged 951 urban and rural residential units, especially hitting Salas-e Babajani County, according to the Iranian website Young Journalists Club.

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, as it sits over several major fault lines that cover at least 90 percent of its territory. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.

In May, as many as 133 people were injured when an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook Iranian south western province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.

In November 2017, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit villages and towns in Kermanshah, killing at least 620 people and injuring over 12,000. In December 2003, a 6.6 magnitude quake hit Bam, in southeastern Kerman province, killing 31,000 people – about a quarter of its population – and leveling many of the areas ancient archaeological sites.

One of the deadliest quake in Iran was in June 1990 that measured 7.7 on the Richter scale, when about 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan.