UAE authorities call for calm after tremors from an earthquake in Iran rattled the country.
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00:00Good evening. Geologists in the UAE have advised people to stay calm as the country was hit
00:08by tremors stemming from a major earthquake in Iran. At least 45 people have been killed.
00:14Officials in Iran said 40 people had died and reports from Pakistan say five people
00:18were killed in Panjgur, southwest of the country. Tremors from the 7.8 magnitude quake were
00:24also felt in India and the Gulf states. The epicentre was in south-east Iran in an area
00:30of mountains and desert, about 200 km south-east of Zahedan and 250 km north-west of Turbat
00:37in Pakistan, the US Geological Survey said. In comparison to what some are calling the
00:43worst earthquake in Iran in 40 years, aftershocks felt in the UAE were small. Dubai and Abu
00:49Dhabi police said no injuries or damages were logged. Iran is a highly active seismic
00:54zone and earthquakes are normally felt in the UAE. The National Centre of Meteorology
01:00and Seismology has advised people to remain calm, noting that an earthquake of this magnitude
01:05occurring far away causes small tremors by comparison. An hour after the initial tremors
01:11were felt in the UAE, hundreds of people were still gathered below buildings in Abu Dhabi,
01:16Dubai, Sharjah, Al Ain and other parts of the country. Most were workers in high-rise
01:21office towers whose buildings had been evacuated following safety procedures. Residents in
01:26the UAE quickly took to social media to find out if the tremors they felt were indeed the
01:31result of an earthquake. On Twitter, readers described chairs and tables shaking. In Abu
01:37Dhabi, a resident said he felt the building shake for 30 seconds. A Dubai resident said
01:42the aftershock was felt on the first floor. Police and airport authorities said there
01:46was no disruption to any service. The tremors felt in the UAE were equivalent to 4.5 on
01:52the Richter scale, according to the observatory at the American University of Sharjah. Authorities
01:58have stressed that buildings in the UAE follow a strict code and are resistant to earthquakes.
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