Muscat: A 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit northern Iran Friday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The American Geophysical Institute said in a statement that the earthquake hit at a depth of 10 kilometers, about 37 kilometers southwest of the city of Semnan, located south of the Alborzt mountain range between Tehran and Mashhad.

According to Qatar News Agency, Iran is occasionally subject to earthquakes of varying intensity due to its location on major fault lines. The most violent of these occurred in 1990, when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the northern city of Rudbar, killing 37,000 people and injuring 100,000 others.