Earthquake in Iran’s Khoy: at least three fatalities and hundreds injuries

At least three people died and hundreds hurt as a result of a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Khoy in northwest Iran. According to Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, the governor of the West Azerbaijan province, 816 individuals were hurt, some of whom were taken for medical attention to neighboring counties.

The strong earthquake, which was felt in Urmia and numerous other counties, occurred late on Saturday at a depth of 7km (4.3 miles). Since then, more than 40 aftershocks have been recorded, with a maximum magnitude equal to 4.2. A large number of people have been stationed in temporary tents in the bitterly cold winter weather because of the quakes.

The quakes of Saturday caused damage to structures and some of the local infrastructure, particularly residential buildings in the dozens of villages surrounding Khoy, some of which also had power outages.

The governor claimed that the measures by the authorities to fortify vulnerable residential structures were successful and that only places with older, unfortified buildings, were affected.

The city had recently been subjected to a number of considerable earthquakes, which did not result in any fatality and did not cause significant damage. For example, on January 18, a previous, 5.8-magnitude quake near Khoy left hundreds injured.

However, in previous years a large number of people died because of earthquakes. It should be mentioned that Iran sits astride the boundaries of major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity. For instance:

• February 2020: At least nine people died when a 5.7-magnitude earthquake devastated the town of Habash-e Olya in western Turkey.

• December 2019 and January 2020: Two earthquakes occurred in close proximity to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.

• November 2017: A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the western Iranian province of Kermanshah left 620 people dead.

• 2003: The old mud-brick city of Bam was destroyed by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in southeast Iran, which also left at least 31,000 people dead.

• 1990: Iran's deadliest earthquake ever was a 7.4-magnitude tremor that struck the country's north and left 500,000 people homeless in addition to killing 40,000 people.