Strong quakes kill five in Iran

TEHRAN: A series of strong earthquakes rocked southern Iran on Saturday, killing at least five people, injuring over 80 others and flattening dozens of buildings.

The two quakes of magnitude 6.0 struck the west of Bandar Abbas, a major port city, in Hormozgan province, the US Geological Survey said. The first rattled an area north of the town of Dezhgan, before a 5.7 tremor hit two hours later followed quickly by the second 6.0 magnitude quake, said the USGS. Hormozgan governor Mehdi Dousti said five people were killed, as cited by the official news agency IRNA.

Dousti told the state television that the village of Sayeh Khosh, close to the epicentre, had completely been destroyed.

“84 people were injured out of whom only 15 are still in hospital for treatment,” National Emergency Services’ spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told the state television.