4 Richter scale earthquake jolts northeast Iran

According to Geophysics Institute of Tehran University, the tremor occurred at 2:34 hours local time (2200 GMT Tuesday) in an area located at 37.39 degrees longitude and 57.49 degrees latitude.

It was registered at a depth of 12 kilometers.

No report on possible damages or casualties has been available yet.

Meanwhile, during the past 12 hours, the North Khorasan Province was hit by six quakes and aftershocks.

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 caused major damage to 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 4500 others.

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