More than 500 people were injured, most lightly, in a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in northwestern Iran on Wednesday, state media reported.
"
The quake, which struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in West Azerbaijan province, injured 528 people, of whom 135 were hospitalized
," said regional governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian. , on state television.
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The earthquake and its aftershocks "
destroyed 50 houses and damaged 500 others in 12 villages in the province
", he added.
State television showed videos of the destruction during the quake which struck around 3:30 a.m. (0000 GMT).
Spokesman for the country's emergency services Mojtaba Khaledi told state TV that '
electricity and water had been cut in villages
' near the towns of Salmas and Khoy, close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Iran sits where several tectonic plates meet and experiences frequent seismic activity.
The deadliest earthquake in Iran was a magnitude 7.4 in 1990 killing 40,000 people in the north, injuring 300,000 and leaving half a million homeless.
In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in southeastern Iran flattened the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killed at least 31,000 people.
