TEHRAN – Iran was jolted by a series of moderate and light earthquakes onSunday and there were reports of 26 people sustaining slight injuries inone of the locations.

The first temblor, measuring a magnitude of 4.6 rocked the town of Ruydar,in Hormozgan province, earlier in the day. The town is located some 940kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

It was followed shortly after by a 5.4 magnitude aftershock, according tothe United States Geological Survey. Iran’s semi-official news agency hadinitially reported the magnitude at 5.7.

In the afternoon, a 5.9 magnitude quake rocked an area in western Iran nearthe border with Iraq in Kermanshah province.

All three earthquakes were shallow at under 10 kilometers, or 6 miles,deep, making them likelier to cause damage than casualties.

The governor of Karmanshah, Houshang Bazvand, told state television that 26people had been reported injured in the earthquake and they receivedoutpatient treatment, and that some houses suffered partial damage.

The head of the country’s agency that handles responses to emergencies andnatural disasters, Pirhossein Kolivand, told state television helicopterswere surveying the mountainous region, and that hospitals in nearby citiesand emergency centers were standing by in case more injured people werefound.

Iran sits on major fault lines and is prone to regular earthquakes. Amagnitude 7.2 quake hit western Iran in November, killing more than 600. In2003, a 6.6 magnitude quake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing26,000 people.