TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – A moderate earthquake and several aftershocks rattled a remote area in eastern Iran on Sunday morning, cracking walls and forcing some to seek shelter in tents, state media reported.
No injuries were immediately reported.
The earthquake hit the town of Arianshahr near Birjand some 800 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said it had a magnitude of 5.1, while the U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at 4.9.
Families kept their children from school out of fear, and “some people took refuge in tents after the quake caused cracks on the old walls in the epicenter,” the report said.
The quake struck at 7:21 a.m., and over the next two hours there were 11 aftershocks.
Iran is located on several seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one slight quake every day on average. In November, a medium-sized 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.
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