Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
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Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)

At least three people were killed and hundreds were injured as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night.

The earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local time, citing the Iranian Seismological Center in Tehran.

"This incident has left 816 injured and three dead," West Azerbaijan governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency, revising up an earlier toll of two dead and 580 injured.

Following the quake, Iran's minister of interior and chief of the Red Crescent Society traveled to Khoy.

Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.

On January 18, a 5.8 quake near Khoy left hundreds injured.

In February 2020, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that rattled the western village of Habash-e Olya killed at least nine people over the border in neighboring Türkiye.

Iran’s deadliest recorded quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the country’s north, injured 300,000, and left half a million homeless.



Dozens of Migrants May Have Drowned En Route to Spain By Boat

This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
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Dozens of Migrants May Have Drowned En Route to Spain By Boat

This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)
This photo provided by Salvamento Maritimo shows migrants crowding a rubber dinghy, with baby in it who was born at sea, during a perilous crossing of Atlantic Ocean by migrants from Africa to reach the Canary Islands, Spain, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Salvamento Maritimo via AP)

As many as 50 migrants attempting to reach Spain by boat from West Africa may have drowned, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.
Moroccan authorities on Wednesday rescued 36 people from a boat that had departed from Mauritania on Jan. 2, the group based in Madrid and Navarra said, and had carried 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis.
A record 10,457 migrants, or 30 people a day, died trying to reach Spain in 2024, most while attempting to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary islands, according to Walking Borders, Reuters said.
The rights group said it had alerted authorities from all countries involved six days ago about the missing boat.
Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency phone line for migrants lost at sea, said it had alerted Spain's maritime rescue service on Jan. 12.
The service said it did not have any information about the boat.
Citing the Walking Borders' post on social media platform X, the Canary Islands' regional leader Fernando Clavijo expressed his sorrow for the victims and urged Spain and Europe to act to prevent further tragedies.
"The Atlantic cannot continue to be the graveyard of Africa," Clavijo said on X. "They cannot continue to turn their backs on this humanitarian drama."
Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said on X that 44 of those who drowned were from Pakistan.
"They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them," she said.