A powerful earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale hit the region of Saravan, close to Iran's border with Pakistan, state television reported Sunday. There were no casualties immediately reported, although state television also said some of the houses were partly damaged, with some windows broken in the area, some 1,350 km (840 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. "Up to now no casualty has been reported, we have already commissioned a helicopter to fly over the remote area of Hidouj, the epicenter, where there is no communication equipment," said Hojjat Ali Shayanfar a local official. Shayanfar said the epicenter was located in a sparsely populated remote area near the Iran-Pakistan border, far from the major towns. A Feb. 22 quake that hit the region of Zarand and other nearby villages, of a magnitude 6.4. It killed 612 and injured more than 1,400, levelling several villages and leaving thousands of people homeless. Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight quake everyday on average.
