World : 6.5 Quake Injures 44 in Iran

A powerful earthquake rumbled in southwestern Iran, triggering landslides that sealed off several mountain villages and injuring at least 44 people, Tehran radio reported today.

The temblor hit the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr about 460 miles south of Tehran and was epicentered in the Zagros Mountains northeast of the waterfront city.

A Tehran radio dispatch monitored in Athens said at least 44 people were hurt in the tremor, which had a magnitude of 6.5.

Access to five villages was cut off when mountain roads were blocked by landslides touched off by the quake.

Earthquakes with a magnitude between 6 and 7 are normally killers in highly populated areas in Iran. But the population in the southern Zagros during the cold season is low, and officials said that may account for the relatively small number of casualties.