TEHRAN / ISLAMABAD: Earth­quakes hit parts of Pakistan and neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan over the weekend, claiming at least three lives and leaving hundreds injured — all casualties reported from Iran’s West Azerbaijan province.

In Pakistan, according to National Seismic Monitoring Centre, a 6.3-magnitude quake jolted Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Murree, and other parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday afternoon. However, no deaths or damage was reported.

The epicentre of the earthquake was Tajikistan, with a depth of 150km, while tremors also shook parts of Afghanistan.

Earlier, a 5.9-magnitude quake jolted northwestern Iran, killing at least three people and injuring more than 800 in the region near the border with Turkiye, according to state officials and media said on Sunday, AFP reported.

Earthquake jolts several parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan

The shallow quake hit the Iranian city of Khoy with a population of around 200,000, in West Azerbaijan province late Saturday night, said the Seismological Center of the University of Tehran.

Panicked residents fled their homes as buildings collapsed and rubble crushed cars, with hundreds seeking shelter from freezing winter conditions in evacuation centres as more than 20 aftershocks rattled the region.

“This incident has left 816 injured and three dead,” West Azerbaijan governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency.

People were seen wrapped in blankets and huddling around fires in the snow-dusted region, in images published by Iranian media, as state TV broadcast footage of major damage to residential buildings, including half-destroyed houses.

Buildings in 70 villages suffered quake damage, the state news agency reported, with rescuers clearing rubble to free those trapped in the area around 800 kilometres (500 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society chief, Pirhossein Koolivand, later announced the search and rescue operations had finished, with no more survivors or bodies believed trapped.

Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, travelled to Khoy to observe the situation, where he said water, power and gas connections were impacted but being restored, IRNA reported.

Major quakes in Iran

Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.

On January 18, a previous, 5.8-magnitude quake near Khoy left hundreds injured.

In February 2020, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the western Turkey village of Habash-e Olya and killed at least nine people.

Iran’s deadliest recorded quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless in the country’s north.

In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake in southeastern Iran levelled the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killed at least 31,000 people.

In November 2017, a 7.3-magnitude quake in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah killed around 620 people.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2023