World

5.9 earthquake in Iran follows strong temblor in China's midsection

An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 5.9 shook a sparsely populated area of southern Iran on Sunday, flattening seven villages, killing 10 people and injuring 70, officials and state-run television said. The temblor was felt as far away as Oman and the United Arab Emirates. A day earlier, a strong earthquake hit central China, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 450. In Iran, Heidar Alishvandi, the governor of Qeshm, was quoted by state television as saying rescue teams were deployed to the affected area, and people in the wrecked villages were moved quickly to safety. Another provincial official, Ghasem Karami, told The Associated Press that high casualties were not expected because the area is not heavily developed. Tehran's seismologic center said the quake was of magnitude 5.9, but the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said it had a magnitude of 6.1. A magnitude-6.0 quake can cause severe damage. Iran's seismologic center said the epicenter was in the waters of the Persian Gulf between the port city of Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island, about 940 miles south of Tehran. The USGS said the quake was 35 miles 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. In China, most of the damage from the magnitude-5.7 quake occurred in Ruichang city and the popular resort town of Jiujiang in Jiangxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. In Hubei province, 78 students were injured when they were caught in a stampede during an evacuation, the news agency said. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and thousands damaged, the agency said.