At least five people have been killed and 49 injured in a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in southern Iran the following day, state media reported, and the area was also hit by a magnitude 6.3 magnitude earthquake. A total of 24 earthquakes, both 6.3 and 6.1, were followed by a magnitude 2 earthquake that shook the town of Sayeh Khosh near the Iranian coast off the Gulf in Hormozgan province. The latest quake occurred around 8 a.m., officials told state TV.
“All the victims died in the first quake and no one was injured in the second major earthquake as people were outside their homes,” Foad Moradzadeh, governor of Bandar Lenge. Emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told State TV that half of the injured were already out of hospital.
Officials said the search and rescue operation was over. Saidid Pourzadeh of the Kish Island Trouble shooter group said Gulf shipping and flights were not disrupted by the earthquake. State TV said 150 earthquakes and earthquakes hit western Hormozgan last month. Lines of major geological errors cross Iran, which has been hit by several devastating earthquakes in recent years. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake shook the region of Kerman and killed 31,000 people and devastated the ancient city of Bam.
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