An elderly woman and a young girl died and nearly 100 people were injured as a 5.2 magnitude earthquake sparked panic in the Iranian capital and neighbouring areas, officials said Thursday. The epicentre of the quake, which struck shortly before 11:30 pm (2000 GMT) on Wednesday, was just 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the capital, according to the seismological centre of the University of Tehran.
"A 70-year-old woman died after suffering a heart attack and a 10-year-old died of elevated stress," the head of Iran's hospital emergency services, Mojtaba Khaledi, told the ISNA news agency. The head of the Iranian Red Crescent's Relief and Rescue Organisation, Morteza Salimi, said 97 people were injured.
Khaledi said around 50 of those were admitted to hospital. The quake caused no major damage but tens of thousands of people spent the night outside for fear of aftershocks.
Many of them did so in their vehicles with the engines switched on for warmth in the wintry conditions, exacerbating the thick smog that has enveloped the capital all week. Petrol purchases in the six hours after the quake reached 10 million litres (2.64 million gallons), more than double the average full day sales even though it was in the middle of the night, the national fuel distribution company said.
Average airborne concentration of the finest and most hazardous particles (PM2.5) rose to 170 microgrammes per cubic metre, with peaks of 194 microgrammes in some neighbourhoods, Tehran municipality said.
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