LONDON (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck northeast Iran on Wednesday near the holy city of Mashhad, leaving at least one person dead and several injured.

The quake, of magnitude 6.1 according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), occurred 76 km (47 miles) east-southeast of the city and at a depth of 33 km.

The governor of the province said on the state television that the quake happened at 10:39 a.m. local time (0609 GMT) and had shaken a vast area.

State news agency IRNA quoted emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi as saying there were fears that casualties in villages and small towns could be high. Red Crescent teams and emergency services had been deployed to the area, he said.

A Red Crescent official was quoted by state media as saying one person had died in a village near the city of Fariman and at that least four were injured.

Pictures posted on social media showed deep cracks in streets and buildings and Tasnim news agency reported that phone lines in some of the affected area were disrupted.

Local people said in media reports and on Twitter they had felt more than a dozen aftershocks, with some afraid to go back to their homes. </s> At least two people died when an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck near Iran’s Shia Muslim holy city of Mashhad on Wednesday, local media reported.

The quake struck at 10:39 am (0609 GMT) around 80 kilometres (50 miles) southeast of Iran’s second city in an area called Sepidsang.

Two people have been reported dead and four injured, local officials told state television, with four villages said to have been badly damaged.

Rescue teams have been sent to affected areas, where some 20 aftershocks have been reported.

“It was horrible. It made a lot of noise. Everything was shaking,” a Mashhad resident told AFP by phone.

Iran lies on a major fault line and sees frequent earthquakes. The most recent was in January, when four people died in southern Iran.

A 2003 quake killed at least 31,000 people and all but destroyed the historic city of Bam in the southeast of the country. </s> A powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck northeastern Iran near the holy city of Mashhad on Wednesday, killing at least one person as residents fled onto the streets and aftershocks shook the region. Iranian state radio said the epicenter of the quake appeared to be the Sefid Sang district, a remote mountainous area home to 5,000 people some 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Mashhad. It said rescue teams and helicopters had deployed in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province to the area to assess the damage.

Semi-official Iranian news agencies posted videos online of people in the street and pictures of cracks and damage to some buildings. Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, said at least one person was killed. The semi-official Fars news agency said five people were injured and that mobile phone service and landline telephone lines had been affected.

State radio described the depth of the quake as only 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Shallow earthquakes can cause serious damage. The U.S. Geological Survey also described the temblor as a 6.1, saying it had a depth of only 13 kilometers (8 miles). A magnitude 6 earthquake can cause severe damage. Iran sits on a series of seismic fault lines and experiences one slight quake a day on average. In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam. </s> TEHRAN, Iran - A powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck northeastern Iran near the holy city of Mashhad on Wednesday, sending people fleeing out onto the street as aftershocks shook the region. Iranian state radio said the epicenter of the quake appeared to be the Sefid Sang district, a remote mountainous area home to 5,000 people some 80 kilometers southeast of Mashhad.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Washington Post. </s> A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near the holy city of Mashhad in Iran's northeast on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey and Iranian media said. USGS said the quake occurred 76 km east-southeast of the city and at a depth of 33 km.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters. </s> TEHRAN, Iran — A powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck northeastern Iran near the holy city of Mashhad on Wednesday, killing at least one person as residents fled onto the streets and aftershocks shook the region.

The shallow temblor damaged at least four villages near its epicenter in the Sefid Sang district, a remote mountainous area home to 5,000 people, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Mashhad, state TV's English-language Press TV channel reported. It said rescue teams and helicopters had deployed in Iran's Khorasan Razavi province to the area to assess the damage.

Semi-official Iranian news agencies posted videos online of panicked people in the streets, items falling off store shelves and photos of damaged buildings.

 Press TV said at least one person was killed. The semi-official Fars news agency said five people were injured and that mobile phone service and landline telephone lines had been affected.

State media described the depth of the quake as only 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Either a shallow earthquakes and or a magnitude 6 temblor on its own can cause serious damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey also described the temblor as a 6.1, saying it had a depth of only 13 kilometers (8 miles).

 Iran sits on a series of seismic fault lines and experiences one slight quake a day on average. In 2003, some 26,000 people were killed by a magnitude 6.6 quake that flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam. </s> At least two people were killed and 370 injured when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake the province of North Khorasan in the northeast of Iran, state media reported.

Saturday's quake, which killed a 54-year-old woman and a teenage girl, jolted the town of Pishqaleh, a farming region close to the Turkmenistan border with a population of about 2,000 people.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred at a depth of 12.5km. The earthquake led to a power outage and state TV reports said the quake damaged several buildings in nearby villages.

Fourteen villages suffered up to 70 percent damage, Morteza Salimi, head of the Red Crescent Society's rescue and relief organisation, was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) news agency.

Managing Director of North Khorasan Red Crescent Society, Hassan Shakouri, said that 37 search-and-rescue teams were sent to the quake-hit region immediately to save victims of the deadly tremor.

He added that 80 percent of the injured have been relocated to tents.

Nearly 177 injured were hospitalised and 223 more received medical aid on the spot, according to rescue officials.

Timeline: Major earthquakes in Iran

"The rescue operations are about to finish and there seems to be no need to ask for further aid from other provinces," Esmail Bahman Abadi, Deputy Head of Razavi Khorasan rescue team told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The earthquake's aftermath has blocked access to several villages and locals have been asked to sleep outdoors over the probability of aftershocks.

Iran is situated on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in 2003 which flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 26,000 people.

Last month, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least two people in the northeastern city of Mashhad, temporarily disrupting cellular communication and landlines. </s> Alwaght- A Magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit North Khorasan province of Iran, killing at least three people and injuring over 377 more injured.

The quake struck late on Saturday, in the country’s northeastern province’s capital Bojnourd as well as Maneh and Samalqan County at a depth of eleven kilometers.

At least 23 aftershocks have so far occurred in the region with the strangest one being a 3.5 magnitude jolt.

Head of Iran's Relief and Rescue Organization told Iranian ISNA news agency that 57 people were hospitalized and 26 others have undergone operations at Bojnourd hospitals.

Morteza Salimi also said 97 villages, where over 31,000 people live, were damaged between 10 to 70 percent.

Local officials have noted that the earthquake’s aftermath has blocked access to several villages. They have noted that locals have been asked to sleep outdoors over the probability of aftershocks.

In April, an earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale hits near the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, temporarily disrupting cellular communication and landlines.

A wall damaged by an earthquake in Iran’s North Khorasan province on May 13, 2017.

The tremor took place on April 5 some 100 kilometers away from Mashhad, prompting rescue and rapid response teams to be dispatched to the affected areas. </s> LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near the holy city of Mashhad in Iran's northeast on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Iranian media said.

USGS said the quake occurred 76 km east-southeast of the city and at a depth of 33 km.

Iranian state television said the quake happened at 10:40 a.m. local time (0610 GMT) and had shaken Mashhad and cities around it.

Tasnim news agency reported that phone lines in parts of affected areas were disrupted.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Iran near the city of Mashhad, kills 1 person and at that least four were injured.