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Over 500 killed in Iran earthquake

TEHERAN JUNE 22. More than 500 people were killed and 2,000 injured in an earthquake measuring 6.0 degrees on the open-ended Richter scale early today in northern and western Iran, State radio reported.

A total of 52 sub-districts in Avaj, near Bouynzahra city in the northwestern Qazvin province, suffered a damage of between 50 and 100 per cent, the State television said. The State news agency, IRNA, meanwhile, reported that the six sub-districts in Avaj had been completely destroyed.

The quake, which hit Bouynzahra at 8.28 a.m. (IST) was followed by an aftershock measuring 4.8 degrees at 8. 31 a.m. (IST), IRNA said. ``The number of injured people is very high; exact figures are still not available, but there will be many casualties,'' Majid Shalviri, who heads the Red Crescent Society in Qazvin — one of the eight affected provinces — said earlier.

Apart from those killed around the epicentre near Bouynzahara, three deaths and more than 100 injuries were reported in Razan, a district in the neighbouring Hamedan province. The quake also shook the Tehran province, Central province, Gilan and Ardebil provinces in the north and Zanjan and Kordestan in the west.

Relief on war footing

The President of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, ordered relief operations on a war footing and directed the Interior Minister, Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari, to ``use all means with the coordination of State machinery'' to organise relief and rescue in the quake-hit areas of Qazvin and Hamedan.

Iran's television broadcast images of the quake-ravaged regions showed dust-covered inhabitants in the Bouynzahra district of Avaj sitting amid the ruins of their homes.

Many building and homes were entirely destroyed by the quake, the report said. The local rescue authorities feared that the number of injured could be very high. — AFP, PTI

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