Iranian media: 79 injured in earthquake in southern Iran

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s state TV says a magnitude 5.8 earthquake has injured at least 79 people in the country’s south. The United States Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 5.9.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities. The earthquake struck in the early morning on Monday near the village of Sirch in the province of Kerman. That’s about 1,100 kilometres or 683 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

The USGS says the quake was followed by several smaller aftershocks and also a 4.8 magnitude temblor to the northeast, and came after a series of quakes the day before that injured nearly 300 people.

Iran sits on major fault lines and is prone to regular earthquakes. A magnitude 7.2 quake hit western Iran in November, killing more than 600.