Log Cabin Democrat: Strong earthquake rocks Iran, at least 5 dead

Published Sunday, March 15, 1998

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Sunday, March 15, 1998Strong earthquake rocks Iran, at least 5 dead

Last modified at 11:35 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, 1998

By AFSHIN VALINEJAD

Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A powerful earthquake shattered walls and roofs in a desert town in southeastern Iran Saturday, killing at least five people and injuring 15, authorities said.

The magnitude 6.4-quake was centered near Golbaf, a carpet-weaving center 65 miles south of the city of Kerman, the Natural Disaster Headquarters told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

A Red Crescent worker in Golbaf said he had counted five bodies and that many walls and roofs had collapsed.

The worker spoke via radio to the Red Crescent office in Kerman because the quake had severed telephones lines.

The Red Crescent was rushing ambulances, medicines, food and tents to Golbaf, its Kerman office told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The first report of the quake came from the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va. Spokeswoman Kathleen Gohn said the quake struck at 11:11 p.m. Iranian time and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.9.

An innkeeper in Kerman, a city of 250,000 about 520 miles southeast of Tehran, said the temblor made his ceiling ''move like a wave.''

Yedollah Sefidgar, at the Kerman Tourism Inn, told The Associated Press that he was standing in the hotel's lobby when he ''felt the earth shaking.''