According to the Seismological Center of the Institute of Geophysics of Tehran University, the quake hit on Wednesday at 23:27 local time (1957 GMT) at a depth of seven kilometers on the border of Tehran and Alborz provinces.

The epicenter of the tremor was located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital.

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said one person was injured in Malard.

The quake was also felt in the cities of Karaj, Qom, Qazvin and Arak.

“We are asking people to stay calm as the traffic itself could create problems,” the Iranian Red Crescent’s Mortza Redmare said during a televised interview.

The quake resulted in minor panic in Tehran province, prompting people to take to the streets and public places.

This comes as Iran is still reeling from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, its deadliest in over a decade, which hit the western province of Kermanshah on November 11, killing more than 500 people and causing extensive material damage there.

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Tehran Doomed If ‘Big One’ Hits, Quake Expert Says
By Erik Kirschbaum :(Reuters) – An earthquake that may one day strike Tehran could kill hundreds of thousands and destroy most of the buildings in the capital city of 12 million, a top Iranian scientist warned on Monday .

Bahram Akasheh, professor of geophysics at Tehran University and a government adviser, said a quake as strong as the one that flattened the southeastern city of Bam could kill many times more than the 30,000 people who are feared dead there.

“The building codes are almost universally ignored in Iran and Tehran is especially vulnerable to quakes because there is a major fault line running across it,” Akasheh told Reuters. “The ground conditions in parts of Tehran are unfavorable: too soft, too brittle and too dangerous to build on. Rules are ignored.”

Northern Tehran is sitting on a major fault about 47 miles long and about 100 smaller fractures, Akasheh said.

He and other researchers estimate that a repeat of the last big quake to hit Tehran, which killed 45,000 in 1830, would today kill six percent of the capital’s population.

“The destruction to Tehran would be immense. About 80 percent of the buildings would be damaged or destroyed. Tehran is not ready for a big one.”

In 1830, most of the damage was to buildings up to 100 km to the east of Tehran, which then had a population of just 10,000.

“All the villages were destroyed,” Akasheh said. “And you must keep in mind there were only one-story buildings then. There was no big city. But everything was still destroyed.”

The 1830 shock is thought to have measured seven on the Richter scale. The quake in Bam was 6.3.

The moderate Sharq newspaper said on Sunday a million or more could die in a Tehran quake. It reported only five of the 32 fire stations are built to withstand a powerful earthquake.

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Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with deputy head of Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME), Iranian Deputy Minister of Energy Sattar Mahmoudi pointed to the need for development of Iran-Japan ties in water, electricity and energy sectors saying “these collaborations can be pursued in a variety of areas like new energies, solar and thermal energy, reduction of power losses as well as consumption management and energy efficiency.

Mahmoudi deemed Japan as one of Iran’s best partners in water and electricity industries asserting “grounds have been provided for cooperation between the two sides and collaborations will be sustained.”

The Iranian official recalled that Iran’s Energy Ministry has always had extensive synergy with Japanese organizations an excellent joint ventures have been carried out; “JCCME has previously held effective workshops for Iran’s private sector and the current meeting will lead to stronger future ties.”

“Training courses of JCCME have proved fruitful to Iranian specialists and the participation of 280 experts in water and power areas has been convincing,” stressed the official adding “JCCME can open a representative office in Tehran as a means of further deepening the ties and taking more serious steps by defining targets.”

He further enumerated venues for cooperation between the two countries including scientific, educational, research and infrastructure creation areas reiterating “great potentials exist in these arenas in which joint action can be manifested through holding training workshop and forming research teams no to mention technical and operational fields.”

Mahmoudi went on to express readiness of Iran’s Energy Ministry to launch partnership with the Japanese center in areas of water resources management, river management, urban water supply, water and sewage treatment as well as reduction of No-Revenue Water (NRW).

JCCME deputy head, for his part, noted that a bureau of the Japanese center will begin operation in Tehran in the year to come; “we hope to have stringer relations with Iranian experts and extend existing venues for cooperation from water to other sectors like electricity or energy.”

Water consumption is very high in Tehran and the Iranian capital has a high risk of having earthquakes, said the official noting “as a means of joint effort, JCCME will spare no effort to make sure people will have access to water and electricity in at the time of earthquake.”

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