Magnitude 5.7 earthquake in northeast Iran leaves 3 dead

Over 200 injured as temblor damages buildings, causes power outage in remote farming region

An earthquake hits northeast Iran, killing 3 people, on May 13, 2017 (YouTube screenshot)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian state TV reported a strong magnitude 5.7 earthquake left three people dead and about 200 injured in a remote area in the country’s northeast.

The quake that struck late Saturday jolted the town of Pishqaleh, a farming region close to the Turkmenistan border, with a population of about 2,000 people, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of the capital Tehran.

The earthquake led to a power outage and TV reports said the quake damaged several buildings in nearby villages.

A magnitude 5.7 quake has the potential to cause considerable damage.

Iran is prone to daily quakes as it sits on many major fault lines. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 temblor flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.

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