Quake Injures 10, Damages 110 Buildings in Central Iran

TEHRAN (FNA) – An earthquake, measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale, jolted a remote mountainous area in Iran’s central province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiyari overnight.The seismological base of the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the Quake at 0:25:32 hours local time (20:55:32 GMT Wednesday night).

The epicenter of the quake, which injured 10 people and damaged 110 buildings, was located in an area measuring 51 degrees in longitude and 31.9 degrees in latitude.

Relief teams were dispatched with tents, blankets, heaters and food baskets to help 111 families struck by the quake in Beldaji and Nasirabad villages in the Gandoman district, some 375 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

Sattar Farhadi, head of the local natural disasters headquarters, told FNA that 9 of those injured were residents of Nasirabad, adding that 110 buildings have been damaged from 20 to 90 percent.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one slight quake every day on average. In November, a medium quake injured 20 schoolchildren in southwestern Iran.

In March 2006, three earthquakes and nine aftershocks hit western Iran, in quick succession, killing at least 70 people and injuring about 1,200.

Some 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6-magnitude quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in 2003.