DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — At least five people were killed by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in southern Iran early Saturday, state media reported. Two other strong quakes later hit the area.
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of emergency management for Hormozgan Province on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast, told Iranian state television that 12 people had been hospitalized, in addition to the five who had died. “Rescue work has been carried out, and we are now providing tents as emergency housing,” he said.
The state news agency IRNA said the first quake, which did extensive damage to the village of Sayeh Khosh, a village near the coast, was followed by two others, with magnitudes of 6.3 and 6.1. There were more than a dozen aftershocks.
The United States Geological Survey gave different figures. It said the first quake was of magnitude 6.0, and that the two that followed had magnitudes of 5.7 and 6.0.
“All of the victims died in the first earthquake, and no one was harmed in the next two severe quakes as people were already outside their homes,” IRNA quoted Foad Moradzadeh, the governor of Bandar Lengeh County, as saying.
Tremors were felt in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Major geological fault lines crisscross Iran, which has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in Kerman Province killed tens of thousands of people and flattened the ancient city of Bam.
Erin Mendell contributed reporting from Seoul.