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At least three people were killed and 800 injured on Saturday when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck northwest Iran near the border with Turkey, government officials and media said Sunday.
Panicked residents fled their homes as buildings collapsed and cars were crushed by debris, with hundreds seeking shelter from the frigid winter conditions in evacuation centers as more than 20 aftershocks rocked the area.
The shallow quake hit the city of Khoy, with a population of about 200,000, in West Azerbaijan province at 9:44 p.m. (6:14 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, according to the Tehran University Seismological Center.
“This incident left 816 injured and three dead,” the news agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran quoted the governor of West Azerbaijan, Mohammad Sadiq Motamed.
People were seen wrapped in blankets and gathering around fires in the snow-covered area, in pictures released by Iranian media, while state television broadcast footage of severe damage to residential buildings, including half-destroyed homes.
Buildings in 70 villages sustained damage from the quake, state news agency reported, as rescuers cleared rubble to free those trapped in the area 800 kilometers (500 miles) northwest of the capital, Tehran.
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kollivand, later announced that the search and rescue operations had ended, and there were no more survivors or bodies believed to be trapped.
Iran’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, traveled to Khoy to monitor the situation, where he said water, electricity and gas connections were affected but restored, the IRNA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said no damage or injuries were reported in Van province, which borders Iran.
Disaster and Emergency Management Chief Yunus Sezer said on Twitter that the concerned disaster and emergency management teams were still carrying out field work to determine the damage in the area.
History of major earthquakes
Iran sits on the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.
On January 18, a previous 5.8-magnitude earthquake near Khoy injured hundreds.
In February 2020, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the western Turkish village of Habashulya, killing at least nine people.
The deadliest earthquake in Iran was the 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1990 that claimed 40,000 lives, injured 300,000 and displaced half a million in the north of the country.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Iran, the ancient mud-brick city of Bam, killing at least 31,000 people.
In November 2017, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in western Iran’s Kermanshah province killed 620 people.
In December 2019 and January 2020, two earthquakes struck near Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.
Iran’s neighbors in the Persian Gulf have raised concerns about the reliability of the country’s only nuclear power facility and the risk of radioactive leaks in the event of a major earthquake.
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