Quake hits close to Iran’s nuclear city Bushehr, 30 killed
Village is totally destroyed
A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station yesterday, killing 30 people and injuring 800 as it devastated small villages, state media reported.
The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to a local politician and the Russian company that built it.
“Up until now the earthquake has left behind 30 dead and 800 injured,” said Fereydoun Hassanvand, the governor of Bushehr province, according to ISNA.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake.
Across the Gulf, offices in Qatar and Bahrain were evacuated after the quake, whose epicentre was 89 km southeast of the port of Bushehr, according to the US Geological Survey. The early afternoon shock was also felt in financial hub Dubai.
Abdulkarim Jomeiri, a member of parliament for Bushehr, told IRNA that “the distance between the earthquake focal point and the Bushehr nuclear power plant was about 80 km and, on the basis of the latest information, there has been no damage to the power plant”.
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18 km south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected.
“The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor.”