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By Trend

At least 2 people were killed and more than 240 were injured in a powerful 6.1-magnitude earthquake which hit western Iran on early Sunday, a provincial official said.

So far two people have been killed and more than 240 others injured, the head of Kermanshah province’s Emergency and Natural Disaster Department said, IRNA reported on August 26.

He added that rescue teams have been deployed to affected areas and the rescue operation is underway.
The epicenter of the quake was almost 6 miles from the city of Tazehabad and about 19 miles from the city of Javanrud. Both cities are close to the Iran-Iraq border. The earthquake struck at a depth of some 10 kilometers (6 miles).

Last November, a 7.3 magnitude quake struck villages and towns in Kermanshah province along the mountainous border with Iraq, killing at least 530 people and injuring thousands of others. It was Iran's deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90 percent of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.

The deadliest quake in Iran's modern history happened in June 1990. It destroyed the northern cities of Rudbar, Manjil, and Lushan, along with hundreds of villages, killing an estimated 37,000 people.

Bam in the country’s southeastern province of Kerman witnessed a strong quake in December 2003 which killed 31,000 people.

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