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Strong earthquake jolts southern Iran | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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TEHRAN (AFP) -A powerful earthquake registering 6.0 on the Richter scale hit southern Iran, state television and local officials said.

The epicentre of the quake was southwest of the town of Fin, north of the city of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province, the provincial governor’s office told AFP.

“The exact point was 20 kilometers away, southwestern of Fin and we think it basically struck mountainous parts of Kouhshab with hardly any village population,” the head of Hormozgan natural disaster department at the provincial office, Masoud Dalman, told AFP.

Dalman said that aid and search groups have been dispatched to the deserted areas, adding that there had been as yet no reports of casualties or damage.

According to state radio, the affected area is located 100 kilometers away from the province capital Bandar Abbas.

The quake struck at 10:58 am (0728 GMT).

In last November, nine people were killed and scores more injured when a similar earthquake measuring close to 6.0 on the Richter scale struck Qeshm island, just to the south of Bandar Abbas.