Magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits southwestern Iran
People stand outside their houses in Tehran after a late-night magnitude 5.2 earthquake jolted a town near Iran's capital, Dec. 21, 2017. (AP Photo)


A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit southwestern Iran along the Persian Gulf on Sunday, followed by at least three moderate aftershocks, state TV reported.

At least one person was injured, Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

State TV shared mobile phone pictures of collapsed walls and damaged homes in the area of the port city of Bandar Genaveh, the temblor's epicenter.

Video shot by a bystander at a construction site near Bandar Genaveh appeared to show landslides in nearby foothills. Both state TV and the semiofficial Tasnim news agency rebroadcast the footage.

Three magnitude 4.0 aftershocks followed the initial quake, the report said.

The U.S. Geological Survey stated the initial temblor had measured 5.8 in magnitude. It said its depth was 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake can cause considerable damage. Such shallow earthquakes as Sunday's also can result in broader damage.

The quake was some 100 kilometers from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. There was no immediate report on the plant, though the facility was constructed to withstand earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0.

Iran is on major seismic faults and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck western Iran in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000.