Three people are reported killed by an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude that jolted Iran Tuesday, 60 miles from Iran's only nuclear power station.
DUBAI, Iran — Three people were killed in a powerful earthquake that struck close to the city of Bushehr in southern Iran, near where the country's only nuclear power station is located, Iranian state television reported Tuesday.There were no further details on the casualties or the extent of damage, but two helicopters were sent to survey the damaged area before sunset, said Mohammad Mozaffar, the head of the province's rescue department.
The earthquake, measuring magnitude 6.3, struck about 8 a.m. EDT, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The Iranian Seismological Center at the University of Tehran reported the quake's epicenter was Kaki, about 60 miles south of Bushehr, a port city on the Gulf.
Reuters witnesses felt the quake across the Gulf in Dubai, and Twitter users in Bahrain reported that offices in Manama had been evacuated after it struck. Another report, by the semiofficial Fars news agency, says fearful residents poured into the streets.
The quake was felt across the Gulf in both Bahrain and Qatar, where workers were evacuated from high-rise buildings as a precaution.
Earlier Sunday, a lighter earthquake jolted Khormooj. Iran is located on seismic faults and experiences daily light earthquakes.
In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude-6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam.
