Turkey sympathises with Iran over quake

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has expressed sympathy with Iran over the strong earthquake that jolted the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

In a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Tuesday, Davutoglu expressed condolences on behalf of the Turkish government and nation.

The Turkish foreign minister said Ankara was ready to send aid for the quake-stricken people of the area.

The earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, hit a sparsely populated rural area between the Iranian provincial cities of Saravan and Khash at a depth of 95 kilometers (59 miles) at 3:14 p.m. local time (1044 GMT) on Tuesday.

The quake, unprecedented in the past 40 years, prompted officials to declare a state of emergency in the region.

Deputy Governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province Mahmoud Miri said on Tuesday that one person was killed and five others were injured in the city of Saravan following the earthquake.

The earthquake was felt across large parts of Iran’s southeastern neighbor, Pakistan, including in Islamabad and the country’s largest city, Karachi, where tremors prompted many to rush out of buildings in terror. The tremor was powerful enough to be felt as far away as New Delhi, India, where it rocked tall buildings.

It was also felt in the Persian Gulf’s littoral states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

On Wednesday, an aftershock measuring 5.7 on Richter scale hit the same area, more than one hundred kilometers east of the city of Khash. So far there have been no reports of casualties or damages following the latest quake.