Iran earthquake: Dubai feels tremors from magnitude 6 quake as they reach UAE coast

UAE residents tell of swaying feeling as overnight quake recorded

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An earthquake in southern Iran was felt in the UAE early on Thursday morning.

The seismic event was reported 60 kilometres north of the Iranian coastal town of Bandar Lengeh.

The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said it was magnitude 6.0, while the US Geological Survey placed it at 5.8.

Residents in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman posted messages on social media reporting swaying.

The UAE's National Centre of Meteorology said the earthquake was detected by its network of stations at 3.15am. The centre recorded it as a 5.0 magnitude event.

“Thought I was on a boat,” one resident said on Twitter.

“Another strong shake and vibration, cracking sound of windows and structure, never felt one here before,” another wrote.

Nehsan Selvaraj said he was staying at a hotel on Bluewaters Island when he felt tremors at about 3.20am.

“The whole Caesars Palace building was shaking,” he said on social media.

“I thought I was dizzy, then realised the lamps were moving heavily, and some strange sounds came from the building window and metals.”

Fakhar-e-Alam, a Pakistani television presenter living in Dubai, said staff in his building were inspecting it “for cracks or any kind of structural stress the building may have suffered".

“These were pretty strong tremors and lasted for almost a minute,” he added.

Iran sits on two major tectonic plates and is prone to frequent and severe seismic activity.

In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake destroyed the city of Bam, killing 26,000 people. In 2017, a magnitude 7 earthquake hit the border region between Iran and Iraq, killing 600 people and injuring more than 9,000.

Earthquakes and tremors in the UAE are relatively frequent but damage to buildings is quite rare.

In pictures: UAE residents evacuated after Iran earthquake tremors in 2013