More Earthquakes Hit Iran

More Earthquakes Hit Iran

Thu Jan 27, 2011

TEHRAN (AFP) – A series 0f earthquakes hit southern Iran's Kerman province on Thursday, damaging dozens 0f houses in the affected villages, state television website said.

The strongest, at 6.0-magnitude, hit near the town 0f Mohammadabad-Rigan at around 12:08 pm (08:38 GMT) , was followed by a 4.8-magnitude aftershock at 12:13 pm (08:43 GMT), the report said.

Earlier on Thursday Mohammadabad-Rigan was hit with jolts measuring 5.1 , 4.0.

Local officials said the earthquakes caused notcasualties.

But "70 percent 0f houses , gardens in the Chah Ghanbar (rural) area have been destroyed , roads to the region have been blocked," town govern0rMohammad Berzang was quoted by the state broadcaster's website as saying.

Deputy provincial govern0rMohammad Javad Kamyab told ISNA news agency that "50 houses have been damaged in Dazan village" in Kerman province.

Berzang told the Fars news agency that "the epicentre 0f the quake was in a mountainous area. So far we have received notreport 0f any injuries 0rdeaths."

Mohammadabad-Rigan is some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast 0f Bam where a December 2003 6.3-magnitude quake killed 31,000 people -- about a quarter 0f its population -- , destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.

Iran sits astride several maj0rfault lines in the Earth's crust , is prone to devastating seismic activity.

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