Strong earthquake kills one in southern Iran

TEHRAN,May 12(MNA) – At least one person has been killed and 17 others injured in a strong earthquake that struck southern Iran on Saturday morning. According to the Iranian Seismological Center, the quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, hit Hormozgan province at 6:38 a.m. local time (0208 GMT) at a depth of 15 kilometers. Head of Hormozgan Crisis Management Organization, Hossein Ranjbar, told the Mehr News Agency that the earthquake had damaged water and electricity networks in the area. According to reports, a number of villages have been damaged to a large extent in the quake-stricken area. Rescue teams have been dispatched to the affected area. Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes. A 6.1 magnitude quake hit some 90 kilometers away from Iran’s sole nuclear power plant, located in the southwestern port city of Bushehr, on April 9. It killed 37 people and injured 950 others but left the nuclear facility undamaged. In one of the deadliest quakes, about 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that flattened the southeastern city of Bam in December 2003.