OUR earthquake 5.9 degrees that hit the northwest yesterday Saturday Irannear the border with Turkey, which killed at least 3 people and injured 816, state media reported.

According to the Seismological Center of the University of Tehran, the earthquake struck the city of Khoy in the West Azerbaijan (northwest) province of Iran at 21:44 (local time; 20:14 Greek time).

“So far, as a result of this earthquake, we have three dead and 816 injured,” said the governor of the province of East Azerbaijan, Mohammad Sadeq Motamedyan, citing the official news agency IRNA.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi arrived in Khoi to assess the situation and supervise the work of the authorities, IRNA reported.

Iran, located at the top of intersecting tectonic plates, has experienced several devastating earthquakes in recent years.

On January 18, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake near Hoi An injured several hundred people.

In February 2020, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the village of Hambas-i-Olia (East), killing at least nine people across the border in Turkey.

The deadliest earthquake ever recorded in Iran, with a magnitude of 7.4, hit the northern part of the country in 1990, killing 40,000 people, injuring another 30,000 and making half a million people homeless.

^{Source: APE, AFP, Reuters.}