Casualty toll rises to over 1,300 in Iran quake

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Mar. 31 – The casualty toll after at least a dozen earthquakes struck the western province of Lorestan overnight has risen to 66 confirmed dead and at least 1,246 injured with the final number expected to rise further, state television reported. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Mar. 31 – The casualty toll after at least a dozen earthquakes struck the western province of Lorestan overnight has risen to 66 confirmed dead and at least 1,246 injured with the final number expected to rise further, state television reported.

Several hundred villages in the province were flattened during the quakes.

The first quake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale struck at approximately 7.47 pm on Thursday. The most powerful of the quakes measuring 6.0 struck in the city of Doroud as people were asleep in their beds at 4.47 am on Friday. Another quake with a magnitude of 5.1 came minutes later.

The epicentre of the quakes was in the region of Silakhor, state media reported.

Some 330 villages are said to have been between 30 to 100 percent destroyed close to the cities of Doroud, Boroujerd, and Khorramabad, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

The state-run news agency Mehr reported that people in the area should be prepared for as many as 100 aftershocks.