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Fri 28 May, 2004 11:06 pm
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
(AP) A strong earthquake struck northern Iran on Friday. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck at 5:08...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A strong earthquake shook central and northern Iran on Friday, killing at least 23 people - some buried by landslides on a mountain road - and seriously damaging more than 80 villages, the Interior Ministry and state-run media said.
More than 100 others were reported injured by the 6.2 magnitude earthquake, which struck at 5:08 p.m. and was centered about 45 miles north of Tehran, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Eight provinces in central and northern Iran were affected by the temblor, with the worst-damaged villages near Alamout, about 80 miles west of Tehran, Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhah Khanjani told The Associated Press.
The quake unleashed landslides and falling boulders that killed 16 people and injured 70 others by burying them in their cars along the mountainous Tehran-Chalous road, state-run television reported.
Five people were killed in Mazandaran province and two in Qazvin province, Tehran radio said. The quake also damaged homes, buildings and telephone lines in the region.
In Tehran, the quake broke windows in parts of the city, causing panicked residents to rush outdoors. As midnight approached, many families were still in the streets or parks, planning to spend the night outdoors for fear of aftershocks.
Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. A December earthquake in Bam, in southeastern Iran, measured 6.6 magnitude and killed 26,000 people.
The depth of Friday's quake was estimated at between 10 and 16 miles, which makes it fairly shallow but still deeper than the Bam quake, said USGS geophysicist Waverly Person in Golden, Colo.
"At that range, it's not quite as shallow as the Bam earthquake," Person said in an interview with the AP. "We don't expect the damage we had in Bam."
Officials at Tehran University's seismological center said Friday's quake had a magnitude of 5.5 and its epicenter was in the village of Baladeh, 43 miles northeast of Tehran, near the Caspian Sea. The center also said there were 12 aftershocks, one with a 4.4 magnitude.
The USGS said it bases its magnitude calculation by looking at measurements of a number of seismographs around the world. This figure can sometimes differ from a measurement recorded closer to the epicenter.
The army stood ready to begin rescue operations if needed, according to Tehran radio.
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Associated Press writer Brian Friedman contributed to this story from New York.
Death Toll Hits 35 in Iranian Earthquake
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May 29, 10:12 PM (ET)
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
(AP) Iranian revolutionary guard members clamber over fallen rocks which blocked the Chalous road after...
MARZANABAD, Iran (AP) - Giant boulders and crushed cars littered a mountain road Saturday, a day after landslides were unleashed by a strong earthquake in northern and central Iran that killed at least 35 people and injured 250 others.
A helicopter flying a provincial governor and three of his aides who had been surveying the damage crashed in the northern mountains Saturday, killing all eight on board.
Fatollah Najafi was busy with a dozen customers at his roadside restaurant Friday afternoon when he felt the ground move and ran out to see huge boulders crushing cars and people.
"It was like a bomb exploded under my feet," Najafi, 60, recalled Saturday. "The only thing I saw was huge stones that looked like they weighed tons rolling down the mountain, smashing cars and people."
(AP) A vehicle crushed by rocks which fell from the mountains during Friday's earthquake, is seen on the...
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One of the boulders hit Najafi's modest restaurant near Marzanabad, 45 miles north of Tehran.
"Thank God I'm alive," he said.
The quake was felt in eight provinces in central and northern Iran, damaging more than 80 villages.
Many of those killed were smashed by falling boulders or buried in their cars along the mountainous road that connects Tehran with the city of Chalous, about 55 miles north of the capital.
But there were no scenes of devastated villages, a common sight after earthquakes in Iran, which sits on a major fault-line.
(AP) Workers try to remove rocks fallen from the mountains in Friday's earthquake on the Chalous road in...
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A magnitude-6.6 quake in Bam, a historical city in southeastern Iran, killed more than 26,000 people last December.
Large cracks riddled the road, which was covered by rocks, giant boulders and damaged cars. Trucks were being used to haul away the cars.
One driver squeezed into his car, whose rear side and passenger compartment were completely crushed, and slowly drove it away.
The landslides cut off road access to about a dozen villages, and army helicopters were ferrying rescue teams to assess the situation in those villages.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society dispatched rescue teams with search dogs, as well as medical teams, tents and lanterns to the stricken areas. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted officials as saying about 50 villages were shaken.
(AP) Cracks are seen in the asphalt road surface following Friday's earthquake, on the Chalous road in...
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Official Tehran television reported that the governor of Qazvin province was in the crashed helicopter, together with three aides, a journalist working for the state-run television and three crew members. The report did not name any of the officials, but the governor of Qazvin is Masoud Emami.
The helicopter crashed in the mountains just north of the city of Qazvin, about 90 miles northwest of Tehran.
Twenty aftershocks were reported after Friday's quake, including one 4.6-magnitude temblor Saturday morning in Bam that state-run Tehran television said caused "some damage but no casualties."
A weak tremor that lasted about five seconds was felt around midday Saturday in Tehran, which has a population of about 10 million people. Friday's quake had cracked or shattered windows in the extreme north of the capital, more than 60 miles from the hardest-hit villages.
Out of fear of a greater quake, many people in Tehran slept outdoors.
(AP) Workers try to remove rocks that fell from the mountains in Friday's earthquake, on the Chalous...
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Bijan Dastari, a senior Red Crescent Society official, said 35 people had been killed and 250 injured in the earthquake, measured at magnitude-6.2 by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Tehran's University's seismological center measured the quake at 5.5 magnitude.
The USGS bases its magnitude calculations by looking at measurements from a number of seismographs around the world. This figure can sometimes differ from a measurement recorded closer to the epicenter.
The quake broke up a wedding party in the village of Anarak, about 45 miles north of Tehran. Dozens of panicked guests rushed outdoors when the ground began trembling and walls began shaking.
Soleiman Mirdar, one of the guests, said the groom and his guests were getting ready to leave for the home of the bride for the wedding ceremony when the quake struck.
"Everybody was happy. I was dancing with other relatives. Suddenly, the house started shaking and the guests ran out in panic," Mirdar said.
He said some suffered minor injuries and the homes of the groom and the bride were damaged.
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