Magnitude 5.5 quake hits southern Iran

TEHRAN,Feb.4(MNA) – An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale struck a sparsely populated area in southern Iran on Sunday. The quake hit in the district of Goharan, Hormozgan Province, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran. A number of buildings were damaged. No casualties were reported. Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes. In one of the deadliest quakes, about 26,000 people were killed by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that flattened the southeastern city of Bam in December 2003.