A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Iran near its border with Turkey on Saturday evening, killing at least two people and injuring hundreds, according to state media.
The earthquake hit the city of Khoy in Iran's West Azerbaijan province at 9:44 p.m. local time (1814 GMT), the Seismological Center of Tehran University reported.
"
So far, this earthquake has left 580 injured and two dead
," said the governor of the province of West Azerbaijan Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, quoted by the IRNA agency.
“
The interior minister and the head of the Red Crescent Society are on their way to Khoy
,” he added.
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Iran sits at the crossroads of several tectonic plates and experiences strong seismic activity.
On January 18, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake near Khoy injured several hundred people.
In February 2020, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit the village of Habash-e Olya (west) and killed at least nine people across the border in Turkey.
The deadliest earthquake ever recorded in Iran, of magnitude 7.4, occurred in 1990, killing 40,000 in the north of the country and injuring 30,000.
Half a million people were then left homeless.