Magnitude 5.9 quake hits western Iran hours after…

DUBAI, July 22 (Reuters) – A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit western Iran on Sunday, injuring at least 25 people, hours after two quakes struck Hormozgan province in the south, state television reported.

“Up to now we have had reports of 25 injured and fortunately no fatalities,” Houshang Bazvand, governor of the western province of Kermanshah, told the TV station, adding that their injuries were not severe enough to require hospitalisation.

State media said the two earlier earthquakes, with magnitudes of 4.7 and 5.7, had damaged buildings in a few villages without causing casualties.

Morteza Salimi, head of rescue at Iran´s Red Crescent, said that so far damage from the two earlier quakes appeared light. “Reports indicate that some walls have collapsed, but extensive damage has not been reported,” Salimi told the official news agency IRNA.

Iran is crisscrossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years. Last November, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit western Kermanshah province, killing at least 620 people and injuring thousands. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; editing by Jason Neely and David Stamp)