AT LEAST 40 people are reported to have been killed after a powerful earthquake rattled southeastern Iran and was felt across the Gulf and South Asia.
Iran’s Seismological Centre reported that a 7.5-magnitude quake struck at 3:14pm local time (11:44am Irish time), about 80 kilometres from the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The US Geological Survey concurred with the time of the quake, but put its intensity at magnitude 7.8 and reported a depth of 51 miles. Iranian state news agency Press TV reported the higher strength.
The quake also shook buildings and forced high-rise offices to be evacuated in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, as well as across northern India, including the capital New Delhi where tremors rattled buildings and caused office-workers to run into the streets.
The head of Iran’s Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, told ISNA news agency that evaluation teams were dispatched to the affected area.
The quake also shook large parts of Pakistan including Islamabad, where buildings swayed, and the largest city Karachi, where tremors also prompted many to flee buildings in terror.
The earthquake was not felt in the Iranian capital Tehran, however.
It comes a week after a strong earthquake struck near Iran’s Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 30 people and injuring 800 but leaving Iran’s only nuclear power plant intact.
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