Over 100 hurt in Iran quake

TEHRAN - At least 104 people were injured in a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that hit Iran Saturday, a media report said.

The quake occurred at 0352 GMT Saturday in Doroud town in the western province of Lorestan and was followed by several minor aftershocks, causing severe damage to residential buildings, Xinhua reported citing Mehr news agency.

Twenty-six of the injured people are still in hospital, the report said.

Iran sits over several fault lines in the earth’s crust and is prone to frequent earthquakes. Moderate quakes sometimes cause huge damage in some regions of the country because of the poor construction.

The worst quake that occurred in recent years was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which struck the southern city of Bam in December 2003, killing 31,000