KUWAIT: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 shook western Iran yesterday, the US Geological Survey reported. USGS said the quake was at a depth of 65 km and struck 114 km northwest of the city of Ilam, close to Iran's border with Iraq. Tremors were felt along Kuwait's coastal areas yesterday evening, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research's seismic monitor said. The earthquake's distance to Kuwait was 581 km with a depth of 10 km, head of the monitoring and crisis management department Dr Abdullah Al-Enezi said.
The Iraqi Geological Survey said the quake had been felt in the capital Baghdad and in Erbil in the Kurdistan region. Iraq's interior ministry said no damage or casualties had been reported in Baghdad. Iranian state TV said rescue teams have been dispatched to the quake-hit area, adding no fatalities have been reported so far. "No reports of any fatalities yet and most of the injured were hurt while fleeing, not due to quake damage," Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the state emergency services, told state TV. - Agencies