Magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits western Iran, over 50 injured

Tehran : At least 51 people have been injured by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, which had previously been struck by a deadly earthquake in late 2017, local authorities said yesterday.

The Director General of Kermanshah’s crisis management office, Reza Mahmoudian, said 42 people were injured in the city of Sarpol-e Zahab, with another nine wounded in the city of Gilan-e Gharb. No fatalities had been reported yet, Efe news agency reported.

“Rescue and relief teams were immediately radioed to be on-site,” the state-run IRNA cited Mahmoudian as saying.

Sarpol-e Zahab was the same city in which 559 people lost their lives in a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that hit the province on November 12, 2017.

Some of the buildings damaged by last year’s earthquake were totally destroyed on Saturday, Mahmoudian added.

Saturday’s earthquake occurred at 3.25pm, with the epicentre located seven km from Sarpol-e Zahab at a depth of eight km, according to Iran’s Seismological Centre.

Casualties from November’s earthquake totalled 620 killed and thousands wounded, with numerous aftershocks continuing for days after the initial seismic activity.