Qatar offers Iran condolences over fatal tremor

Qatar has extended its condolences to the Iranian government and nation over a deadly earthquake, which killed a number of people in the southern city of Borazjan.

In separate messages to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday, Qatari King Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani expressed their condolences over the tragic natural disaster, and offered Qatar’s sympathy with the families of the victims.

At least eight people were killed and 45 others injured when an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale rattled Borazjan on Thursday.

According to the Iranian Seismological Center, the quake hit the city, located 1,150 kilometers (714 miles) south of the Iranian capital Tehran, at 5:21 p.m. local time (1351 GMT), and struck at a depth of five kilometers.

Its epicenter was located at 29.29 degrees north latitude and 51.37 degrees east longitude.

The strong earthquake was followed by at least five aftershocks, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 3.4.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

A major quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale shook a sparsely-populated rural area between the cities of Saravan and Khash in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan at a depth of 95 kilometers on April 16. The quake was unprecedented in the past 50 years.

The deadliest earthquake to hit Iran in recent years happened on December 26, 2003, when a 6.6-magnitude quake struck Bam city and the surrounding areas in the southeastern province of Kerman, leaving tens of thousands of people dead and injured.