5.5-magnitude quake kills at least 8 in eastern Iran

At least eight people have been killed and several others injured in an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale that struck eastern Iran.

The Iranian Seismological Center said that the epicenter of the quake was 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the town of Zohan, in South Khorasan Province, at a depth of nine kilometers.

The tremor struck at 20:38 local time (1708 GMT) on Wednesday.

Local officials said that nearly two dozen others have been wounded while another person is missing. The number of casualties is expected to rise, as some of the injured are in critical condition.

People fled their homes in panic as the quake damaged buildings and brought walls down.

Search operations will be resumed soon to locate and rescue those trapped under debris.

Efforts are still underway to restore electricity to quake-hit areas.

The earthquake caused damage to over a dozen villages. At least 16 aftershocks have reportedly hit the area.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least one small tremor per day on average.

More than 300 people died and over 3,000 others were injured in two powerful earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks that rocked the country’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan in August.

In December 2003, about 27,000 people were killed and 30,000 others injured when a 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the historic city of Bam in southeastern Iran.

The deadliest earthquake in modern Iranian history was a 7.4-magnitude tremor that occurred on June 21, 1990 and affected Gilan and Zanjan provinces. About 40,000 people were killed, 60,000 others were injured, and around 100,000 adobe houses sustained major damage or collapsed.