Earthquake Kills 100, Injures 250 in North Iran
A strong earthquake killed at least 100 people and injured 250 in northwestern Iran on Friday, Iranian state television said.
The temblor, measuring 5.5, hit the city of Ardabil and the town of Meshgin Shahr near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan at 4:27 p.m., the broadcast said.
“The country’s Natural Disaster Headquarters announced, with regret, that at least 100 of our compatriots have lost their lives and over 250 people were injured,” said state television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp.
The quake lasted 30 seconds and also caused considerable damage in many of the surrounding districts of Ardabil province, it said.
Rescue teams rushed to the stricken areas to help survivors, the broadcast said.
Ardabil is an agricultural province inhabited mainly by Iran’s Azeri minority. It is one of Iran’s coldest regions with regularly freezing temperatures during the winter.
The tremor hit the Ardabil area about 16 hours after another strong earthquake killed nearly 50 people in and around the town of Quetta in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province across Iran’s southeastern border.
A Pakistani government seismic center in the northwestern town of Peshawar measured the earlier quake at magnitude 6.2.
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