2 December 2017 12:00 am
TEHRAN AFP Dec1, 2017- Three earthquakes hit eastern Iran in quick succession early Friday, the first a fairly strong magnitude 6.0 tremor that struck at a shallow depth close to the populous city of Kerman, the US Geological Survey said.
It was followed by two less powerful 5.0 and 5.1 aftershocks in the same area, the survey said.
“For the moment, no deaths have been reported but there has been destruction in several villages,” Hossein-Ali Mehrabizadeh, an official with the crisis unit in Kerman, told state television. Residents of the city came out into the street as the quake struck, and motorists were seen rushing to stock up on petrol, according to local media. The latest tremors come just over two weeks after a 7.3 quake killed more than 500 people in western Kermanshah province, close to the border with neighbouring Iraq.
Iran sits on top of where two major tectonic plates meet and sees frequent seismic activity.