“One person has been killed and seventeen others have been wounded in the strong earthquake that jolted central and eastern parts of Khorasan Razavi Province in northeastern Iran on Wednesday morning,” Deputy Chairman for Crisis Management Headquarters at Khorasan Razavi governor office Mohammad Maghdouri said.
Some 20 villages in the cities of Fariman, Sarakhs have sustained damaged between 20 to 80 percent, he said.
So far, 24 aftershocks have been reported with the strongest standing at 4.9 and the weakest at 3.2 on the Richter scale, he said.
Rescue teams have been dispatched to the region to help rescue victims of the quake, he said.
The earthquake measuring 6.1 degrees on the universal Richter scale jolted Sefidsang region near the town of Fariman, 100 kilometers south of the provincial capital city of Mashad earlier today at 10:40 hours local time (06:10 GMT).
The Institute of Geophysics at Tehran University put the geographical location of the quake at the longitude of 60.23 degrees and the lattitude of 35.83.
According to the provincial officials, the strong quake has also caused destructions in the villages, specially those located close to the epicenter of the tremor which according to Iran’s Institute of Geophysics at Tehran University was registered at a depth of 10 km below the surface at Sefidsang region.
