A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 struck southeast Iran on early Wednesday morning, centered near the city of Kerman, seismologists say. Only few details were immediately available.
The earthquake, which struck at 1:11 a.m. local time on Wednesday, was centered about 64 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Kerman, the capital of the province with the same name and one of the country’s largest cities.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) put the preliminary magnitude of Wednesday’s earthquake at 6.0. It said the quake struck at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), making it a very shallow earthquake.
There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.
“That was strong enough to wake everybody around,” one resident in Kerman told European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). It happened less than a day after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit the same region, injuring at least 17 people.
Even earthquakes with relatively low magnitudes often cause serious damage and large numbers of casualties in certain parts of Iran due to poor construction. Tremors which strike late at night or early in the morning are especially deadly as most residents are sleeping in their homes at that time.
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