5.9 temblor shakes Iran; 5 people hurt

TEHRAN, Iran — A magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook southwestern Iran along the Persian Gulf on Sunday, followed by over a dozen aftershocks, state TV reported.

At least five people were injured, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

State TV shared cellphone pictures of cracked and collapsed walls in the area of the port city of Bandar Genaveh, the temblor’s epicenter. People rushed into the streets as the quakes struck, IRNA said.

Three aftershocks of magnitude 4 followed the initial quake, the report said, as well as other weaker ones.

Iran’s senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, in a phone call with the Bushehr provincial governor, called for the immediate care of quake victims, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey called the initial temblor a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. It said its depth was 6.2 miles.

The quake was some 60 miles from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.

ISNA quoted an official at the nuclear power plant saying the quake caused no damage and there were no disruptions in the plant’s operations. The facility was constructed to withstand earthquakes up to magnitude 8.

Iran is on major seismic faults 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.