Scores dead in Iran quake near active nuclear plant
10 April 2013 10:27 PM IST
A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing 30 people and injuring 800 as it devastated small villages, state media reported.
The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to a local politician and the Russian company that built it. ‘Up until now the earthquake has left behind 30 dead and 800 injured,’ said Fereydoun Hassanvand, the governor of Bushehr province, according to ISNA.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake. Abdulkarim Jomeiri, a member of parliament for Bushehr, told IRNA that ‘the distance between the earthquake focal point and the Bushehr nuclear power plant was about 80 km and, on the basis of the latest information, there has been no damage to the power plant.’
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected.
‘The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor. Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm,’ Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.
One Bushehr resident said her home and the homes of her neighbours were shaken by the quake but not damaged.
‘We could clearly feel the earthquake,’ Nikoo, who requested to be identified only by her first name, told Reuters news agency by telephone. ‘The windows and chandeliers all shook.’
The quake hit at 1152 GMT with a depth of 12km, the Iran Seismological Centre said.
The US Geological Survey, which monitors quakes worldwide, ranked the quake at a more powerful 6.3 magnitude. Tremors from the earthquake in western Iran could also be felt in Gulf countries.
The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to a local politician and the Russian company that built it. ‘Up until now the earthquake has left behind 30 dead and 800 injured,’ said Fereydoun Hassanvand, the governor of Bushehr province, according to ISNA.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake. Abdulkarim Jomeiri, a member of parliament for Bushehr, told IRNA that ‘the distance between the earthquake focal point and the Bushehr nuclear power plant was about 80 km and, on the basis of the latest information, there has been no damage to the power plant.’
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected.
‘The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor. Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm,’ Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.
One Bushehr resident said her home and the homes of her neighbours were shaken by the quake but not damaged.
‘We could clearly feel the earthquake,’ Nikoo, who requested to be identified only by her first name, told Reuters news agency by telephone. ‘The windows and chandeliers all shook.’
The quake hit at 1152 GMT with a depth of 12km, the Iran Seismological Centre said.
The US Geological Survey, which monitors quakes worldwide, ranked the quake at a more powerful 6.3 magnitude. Tremors from the earthquake in western Iran could also be felt in Gulf countries.
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