Number of people injured in Iran’s quake rises to 520
November 09, 2019 - The number of injured people from a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Iran on Friday jumped to 520 from more than 300, according to the country’s state TV.
Saturday's report said the updated figure followed the end of rescue operations in more than 80 remote villages in Iran's East Azarbaijan Province, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital, Tehran, AP reported.
The nighttime earthquake in northwestern Iran killed six people.
Described as "moderate", the shallow quake was eight kilometers (five miles) deep and was followed by five aftershocks.
Over 80 aftershocks rattled the rural region nestled in the Alborz Mountains, and residents rushed out of their homes in fear.
Provincial Governor Mohammadreza Pourmohammadi told local media the earthquake destroyed 30 homes at its epicenter and damaged more than a thousand homes.
Rescue operations were underway in more than 40 villages, but the damage was largely concentrated in two areas.
According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), some 20 million people felt the quake across Iran and possibly in neighboring Turkey.
Iran sits where two major tectonic plates meet and experiences frequent seismic activity.
The country has suffered a number of major disasters in recent decades, including at the ancient city of Bam, which was decimated by a catastrophic earthquake in 2003 that killed at least 31,000 people.
In 1990, a 7.4 magnitude quake in northern Iran killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless, reducing dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.
Iran has experienced at least two other significant quakes in recent years – one in 2005 that killed more than 600 people and another in 2012 that left some 300 dead.