Quake hits western Iran

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale hit the town of Soomar in Kermanshah Province, Western Iran, on Saturday morning.
The Seismological center of Kermanshah province affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the quake at 00:36 hours local time (2006 hours GMT).
The epicenter of the quake was registered at 45.7 in longitude and 33.7 in latitude.
There has yet been no report on the possible number of casualties or damage to properties by the quake.
Soormar (also Romanized as Sūmār, and Sowmār) is a small city in and the capital of Soormar District, in Qasr-e Shirin County, Kermanshah Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 20, in 15 families, making it Iran's least populous settlement with city status. Virtually the entire population of Soormar was killed by an Iraqi chemical attack, and the city was destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War.
Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.
The worst in recent times hit Bam in Kerman province in December 2003, killing 31,000 people - about a quarter of its population - and destroying the city's ancient mud-built citadel.
The deadliest quake in the country was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. About 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. It devastated 27 towns and about 1,870 villages.
In August 2012, two quakes in Northwestern Iran also claimed the lives of 306 people and injured more than 4,500 others.