Earthquake jolts southern Iran, flattening villages; at least 10 dead

Originally at http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=682060c8-2818-4f92-b743-a84aff86b6b7&k=25866

Nasser Karimi, Canadian Press
Published: Sunday, November 27, 2005
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An earthquake measuring at least magnitude-5.9 shook southern Iran on Sunday, killing 10 people and flattening at least four villages, officials said. The temblor was felt as far away as Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Heidar Alishvandi, the governor of Qeshm, was quoted by state-run television as saying rescue teams were deployed to the affected areas, which included four destroyed villages. He said people in those villages moved quickly to safety.

Another provincial official, Ghasem Karami, told The Associated Press that high casualties were not expected because the area is sparsely populated.

Tehran's seismologic centre said the quake measured magnitude-5.9, but the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said it was a magnitude-6.1 temblor. A magnitude-6.0 quake can cause severe damage.

Iran's seismologic centre said the epicentre was in the waters of the Persian Gulf between the port city of Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, about 1,500 kilometres south of Tehran. The USGS said the quake was 56 kilometres southwest of Bandar Abbas, which has about 500,000 residents.

Masoud Dalman, head of Hormozgan province's emergency affairs, said several buildings on Qeshm Island were damaged. The island has about 200,000 residents.

State-run TV reported that Qeshm Island's airport sustained minor damage and part of a major hospital collapsed from the force of the quake. No further details were provided.

Shahram Alamdari, head of Iranian Red Crescent's rescue unit, said two helicopters were evacuating the injured from Qeshm to Bandar Abbas.

Iranian television ran video from Qeshm showing minor damages to some buildings and a few injured people being taken to hospitals. The report said the villages of Karavan and Kousheh were worst hit, but no footage was shown from those sites.

The quake cut telephone links between Qeshm Island and the mainland, the report said.

In Oman and the United Arab Emirates, buildings were evacuated and people fled into the streets.

"Power and water supplies were not affected," said Alireza Khorshidzadeh, a local journalist. "People poured into the streets, fearing aftershocks."

In Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, several buildings in the skyscraper-lined central business district were evacuated. They included the twin Emirates Towers, the highest buildings on the main street, where many international corporations and Dubai government institutions have offices.

"It lasted around 30 seconds or so - you could feel the building moving and the coffee cups shaking," said public relations executive Bina Mathews.

Iran is located on a number of seismic fault lines and, on average, experiences at least one slight quake every day.

The last major quake to hit southern Iran was in February, when a magnitude-6.4 temblor rocked Zarand, a town of about 15,000 people in Kerman province, 970 kilometres southeast of Tehran. It killed 612 people and injured more than 1,400, levelling several villages and leaving thousands of people homeless.