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Casualties given by sources have been in contradiction after a powerful earthquake measuring 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale hit southeastern Iran on Tuesday.
The epicenter of the quake, which hit Saravan city in Sistan and Baluchestan province, 50 km from the Pakistani border, at 15: 14:17 local time (10:44:17 GMT), was determined to be at the depth of 95 km, 28.04 degrees north latitude and 62.03 degrees east longitude, according to Iran's Seismological Center.
CONTRADICTORY FIGURES
Iran has announced on Tuesday a state of emergency in the quake- hit region, and, an hour after the quake, some local media said at least 40 were killed.
However, Hatam Narouei, governor of Sistan and Baluchestan province, refuted the reports, saying the figure was "the fabrication" of Western media.
"No death reports so far, only five people were injured," the Iranian state IRINN TV quoted Narouei as saying.
But the latest Press TV report said one was confirmed killed.
While reports put the number of injuries differently as well, the latest figure provided by the state TV said the quake injured 27 people and most of them were treated on site without being taken to hospitals.
Apowerful earthquake measuring 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale hit southeastern Iran on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhangyong)
NO BIG DAMAGE
No quake in Iran's plateau have been higher than 7.5 magnitude since 1957, an Iranian seismologist told Press TV, while Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said the quake on Tuesday had disrupted the region's telecommunication totally.
But Narouei told IRINN that within a few hours, electricity, water and telecommunication disruptions in the quake-hit area were all fixed, implying that the strength of the tremor had had no critical impact on the infrastructure of the region.
Morteza Akbarpour, deputy of Iran's Crisis Management Organization, told semi-official ISNA news agency that "Since the epicenter of the earthquake was in the desert region and it was sparsely populated, there was no fatalities in the surrounding cities and towns."
The reason why less damage was caused to the buildings and why people were not affected seriously is that the structure of the houses is flat and "the material used to build the houses was mostly of mud," so houses are light, said Saravan representative to the Iranian parliament, Hedayatollah Mirmorad-Zehi.
An official from the Red Crescent Society of Sistan and Baluchestan also told the state IRIB TV that "No major problem for the people (in the quake-hit region), only the crack on the walls of some houses."
PRONE TO QUAKES
The tremor also jolted the southern Gulf littoral states, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday.
Thousands of employees in the United Arab Emirates were evacuated from buildings in downtown Dubai and Jebel Ali port. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, at least 47 were killed and several others injured when some houses collapsed in Mash Khel area of Panjgur, about 517 km southwest of Quetta of the country's southwest Balochistan province.
Tuesday's earthquake, which, according to Iran's Seismological Center, lasted for 40 seconds, was the second tremor taking place in the country's south in a week. On April 9, a quake measuring 6. 1-magnitude hit Iran's southern province of Bushehr and left at least 37 people dead.
Iran, including its capital Tehran, sits astride several major fault-lines in the earth crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes. Moderate quakes sometimes caused huge damages in some regions due to poor construction.
The deadliest earthquake to have hit Iran in recent years happened on Dec. 26, 2003, when a 6.6-magnitude quake struck Bam city and the surrounding areas in Kerman province. It left over 26, 000 people dead and some 30,000 injured.
