Iran Earthquake 2013: Large Quake Reportedly Felt Across Middle East Region (VIDEO)
TEHRAN, Iran -- An earthquake toppled homes and shops on
both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border Tuesday, killing dozens of people
and causing skyscrapers to sway in Dubai. It also forced Iranian
officials – for the second time in less than a week – to issue
assurances that its main nuclear reactor wasn't damaged.
At least 34 people were killed in a single village in Pakistan, a
military official said. But the overall death toll became clouded after
conflicting reports from Iran.
At first, Iran's state-in Press TV said at least 40 people
died – which would push the two-nation tally to 74. But it later
retreated from its account, and other Iranian outlets stepped in with a
far less dire picture.
Despite the conflicting reports on the Iranian side, a Pakistani
military official said at least 34 were killed on their side of the
border and 80 were injured. Up to 1,000 mud homes were damaged, Pakistan
Television added. The military spoke on condition of anonymity in line
with Pakistan military policy.
A Pakistani policeman, Azmatullah Regi, said nearly three dozen homes
and shops collapsed in one village in the Mashkel area, which was the
hardest hit by the quake. Rescue workers pulled the bodies of a couple
and their three children, ages 5 to 15, from the rubble of one house, he
said.
The Pakistani army ordered paramilitary troops to assist with rescue
operations and provide medical treatment. Additional troops are being
moved to the area, and army helicopters were mobilized to carry medical
staff, tents, medicine and other relief items.
The discrepancies and apparent backtracking in the Iranian reports
could not be immediately reconciled, but it was the second quake to hit
Iran in less than week and authorities could be seeking to downplay
casualties.
Commentary on Iranian TV criticized international media for
"exaggerating" the death toll, raising further questions about the full
extent of the damage in the rugged region that's a front line in Iran's
battle against drug traffickers and the Sunni-based militant group,
Jundallah, which carries out sporadic attacks.
Iran's state-run Press TV initially said at least 40 people were
killed on the Iranian side, but later removed the figure from its
website and news scroll. Other state-controlled outlets, including the
official IRNA news agency, mentioned no deaths and only up to 27
injuries, quoting a local official.
The
website of Tehran Geophysics Center said the quake, measured at least
magnitude 7.7, lasted 40 seconds and called it the strongest in more
than 50 years in one of the world's most seismically active areas. Press
TV called it "massive," but likely far less than menacing than lesser
quakes in far more populated areas.
It also was the second deadly quake to hit Iran in less than a week
after a magnitude 6.1 temblor struck near Bushehr, on Iran's Persian
Gulf coast, killing at least 37 people and raising calls for greater
international safety inspectors at Iran's lone nuclear reactor nearby.
Press TV said the quake was centered near Saravan, about 50
kilometers (26 miles) from the Pakistani border. The U.S. Geological
Survey put the preliminary magnitude at 7.8 and at a depth of 15.2
kilometers (nine miles).
Iran's nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi said there was no damage to the
Bushehr reactor and invited U.N. inspectors to visit, the semiofficial
ISNA news agency reported. Abbasi repeated the statement issued after
last week's quake: The Bushehr plan was built to withstand quakes up to
magnitude 8, which is considerably stronger than Tuesday's temblor.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security
also called any damage to Bushehr "unlikely" from the latest quake,
which is nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the border region.
Rowena Lohman, an earthquake physics expert at Cornell University,
said some unusual geophysics may have prevented much greater damage and
casualties.
"Today's earthquake in southeastern Iran was large but fairly deep,
which reduces the expected level of damage relative to a shallower
earthquake of the same magnitude," she was quoted as saying in a
statement.
In Iran, the Red Crescent said it was facing a "complicated emergency
situation" in the area with villages scattered over desolate hills and
valleys.
The quake was felt over a vast area from New Delhi – about 1,500
kilometers (900 miles) from the epicenter – to Gulf cities that have
some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, including the record 828-meter
(2,717 -foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Officials ordered temporary
evacuations from the Burj Khalifa and some other high-rises as a
precaution.
A resident in the quake zone in Iran, Manouchehr Karimi, told The
Associated Press by phone that "the quake period was long" and occurred
"when many people were at home to take a midday nap."
Pakistani news channels showed buildings shaking in the southern city
of Karachi, where people in panic came out from offices and homes.
In a message posted on Twitter, British Foreign Secretary William
Hague sent condolences to families of those lost in the Iran earthquake.
In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern Iranian city of Bam.
___
Santana reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this story.
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Iran Earthquake 2013: Large Quake Reportedly Felt Across Middle East Region (VIDEO)
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