TEHRAN, June  18, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - At least four people were killed and 120
injured Tuesday in a 4.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Iran's northeastern city
of Kashmar, state media reported.

The quake struck at 1:24 pm (0954 GMT), Kashmar's governor, Hajatollah
Shariatmadari, who gave the casualty toll, said on state television.

Thirty-five people were hospitalised, he said, adding the quake damaged
mostly dilapidated buildings in urban and rural areas of the city.

State television aired footage of the aftermath of the quake showing first
responders working in a street where all buildings were reduced to rubble.

The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake hit at a depth of
10 kilometres (six miles).

Iran sits atop various tectonic plates and is often hit by earthquakes.
A 5.9 magnitude quake early last year killed three people and injured over
800 in the country's mountainous northwest, near the border with Turkey.

And in one of the world's deadliest disasters, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake
killed over 31,000 people in Iran's southeastern city of Bam in 2003.