Strong earthquake hits Iran, 50 killed, 400 hurt

About 50 people died while more than 400 hurt as heavy earthquake hit northwest Iran on Saturday, state TV said.
As per details, two strong earthquakes hit northwest Iran in quick succession, cutting communications and sending panicked residents into flight, the report added.
The temblors, which struck near the city of Tabriz, home to 1.5 million people, measured 6.2 and 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale, according to Tehran University’s Seismological Centre.
“Our access to villages has been cut and we can only contact them by radio transceiver,” Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of Iran’s Rescue and Relief Organisation, told media.
The university’s seismological centre said the first earthquake hit at 4:53pm (1223 GMT) with an epicentre just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Tabriz, close to the town of Ahar.
The broadcast said three aftershocks – measuring 6.0, 4.7 and 4.1 – jolted the same area and were felt in a wide region near the Caspian Sea.
The second — a big aftershock — rumbled through just 11 minutes later from nearly the same spot. Both occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles). A series of five smaller aftershocks rapidly followed, the centre said.
The US Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes worldwide, confirmed the two initial temblors. It agreed the first 6.2 measured moment magnitude scale measuring energy released but gave an even bigger 6.3 for the first aftershock.
Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.
The deadliest was a 6.6-magnitude quake which struck the southern city of Bam in December 2003, killing 31,000 people, about a quarter of the population and destroying the city’s ancient mud-built citadel.