Moderate quake jolts western Iran

A moderate earthquake has jolted a small town in western Iran near the Iraqi border.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency says the magnitude 5.5 quake hit the sparsely populated area near the town of Mourmouri at 2:39 p.m. on Thursday. The town is about 480 km  southwest of the capital Tehran.

The agency says people rushed out of their homes but there were no immediate reports of casualties. The area has experienced dozens of moderate earthquakes over the past few weeks.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, experiencing at least 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.
 

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