TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Two moderate earthquakes rattled Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan on Saturday evening, the country’s state TV reported.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, but the quakes, both after sundown, caused people to rush out and stay on the streets as several aftershocks jolted the area.
The TV report said that first, a magnitude 5.7 quake struck after 8 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles). The second, magnitude 5.8 temblor happened two minutes later, at a depth of 9 kilometers (5.5 miles).
The area of both quakes, near the city of Bandar Khamir, is roughly about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.
The area lies along Iran’s coast, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which is the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea. It has seen many moderate earthquakes in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed five people and injured 44 in the same province. And in November, two earthquakes, magnitude 6.4 and 6.3, led to the death of one man.
Iran lies on major seismic fault lines and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people. A magnitude 7 earthquake that struck western Iran in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000.
