Magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes western Iran, No fatalities reported

London, Nov 25: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 shook Iran near its border with Iraq on Sunday night, the same area where another temblor last year killed over 600 people.

The US Geological Survey said the quake was at a depth of 65 kilometres (40 miles) and struck 114 km northwest of the city of Ilam, close to Irans border with Iraq.

The Iraqi Geological Survey said the quake had been felt in the capital Baghdad and in Erbil in the Kurdistan region.

No fatalities have been reported so far, but Kermanshah province's deputy governor general was quoted by Fars news agency as saying that scores of people have been treated for injuries, mostly in the two cities of Sarpol-e-Zahab and Gilan-e-Gharb.

In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 26,000 people.

Last year's earthquake near Sarpol-e Zahab, a predominantly Kurdish town, had a magnitude of 7.3. The region, nestled in the Zagros Mountains, largely rebuilt in recent decades after Iran and Iraq's ruinous 1980s war, saw many buildings collapse or sustain major damage in the 2017 quake.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)