Three Iranian Quakes Kill At Least 70

About 1,200 Hurt; Centered In Western Part Of Country

(CBS/AP) 
After the first quake struck, police in the city of Boroujerd and the town of Doroud toured the streets with loudspeakers urging people to leave their homes for fear of subsequent temblors.

The measure is thought to have contributed to a lower death toll than is usual in Iran for quakes of this magnitude.

The quake in the middle of the night caused panic, with citizens in Doroud running out of their homes. Many spent the night in open space, residents said.

"We are afraid to get back home. I spent the night with my family and guests in open space last night," Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri told the AP by telephone.

Twelve aftershocks were registered after the first quake, said Nabi Bidhendi, the head of Tehran University's Geophysics Institute.

Such quakes have killed thousands of people in the past in the countryside where houses are often built of mudbricks.

The epicenter of Thursday night's quake was in the mountains south of Boroujerd and north of Doroud.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.7-magnitude quake at 4:47 a.m., followed by a 4.7-magnitude 15 minutes later. Their epicenters were 210 miles southwest of Tehran.

The area had been hit by a 4.7-magnitude quake the day before, the USGS said.

Disaster official Barani told the official Islamic Republic News Agency that rescue teams had been sent to the region to help the survivors.

Television showed survivors standing next to their destroyed homes and showed dozens of sheep and goats killed by the quake.

Barani said hospitals in the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd were full to their capacity and could not receive further injured, the television reported.

Officials recalled doctors and nurses from vacation to help treat the injured. Iranians are celebrating Nowruz, or new year, and most government offices are closed.

Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes, often with devastating results because much of the housing is poorly constructed. Often, the earthquakes trigger landslides, CBS News notes. Iran experiences at least one slight earthquake everyday on average.

In February 2005, a 6.4-magnitude quake rocked the town of Zarand in southern Iran, killing 612 people and injuring more than 1,400. In that quake, CBS News reported some 40 villages with a population of 30,000 people were damaged, leaving many homeless. At least 80 percent of the buildings in Sarbagh were leveled.

A magnitude-6.6 quake flattened the historic city of Bam in the same region in December 2003, killing 26,000 people. In 1990, 40,000 people died in a quake, CBS News reported.