According to media reports, the seismic event, measuring from 6.6 to 7 on the Richter scale, killed nearly 200 people, sent over 8,000 to hospitals and caused a severe shortage of drinking water.

“The Secretary-General extends his sincere condolences to the Chinese Government and people,”  Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“He expresses his deepest sympathies in particular to those who have lost loved ones or been otherwise affected by this disaster,” he added.

“I understand that the damage is less than might have been expected for an earthquake of this strength,” he said at a ceremony marking the re-opening of the Security Council Chamber following its refurbishment. “Still, there are deaths and terrible damage. I express my profound condolences to the families of the victims, and to the Governments and people of both countries.

“I will continue to follow the news closely as relief workers and search and rescue teams reach the areas. The United Nations stands ready to help as necessary if asked to do so,” he added.

According to media reports dozens of people were killed in both countries when the quake struck the border region, with one Iranian official quoted as saying it was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years with the death toll expected to be in the hundreds.

The earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter and according to the US Geological Survey the epicentre of the quake was 86km southeast of Khash, Iran.

Initial reports put the death toll at 40, with officials saying that hundreds were feared dead from the quake.

According to reports the earthquake was felt in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan including Delhi, India’s capital.

A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 39 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed houses and two villages.

The deadliest quake in the country was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. About 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. It devastated 27 towns and about 1,870 villages, according to Fars news agency.

According to the initial results of the Haiti Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which covered 13,350 households, 77 per cent of children aged 6-11 years attended primary school in 2012, compared to just below 50 per cent in 2005-2006 when the last survey was conducted.

Acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months has been reduced by half from 10 per cent to five per cent, and chronic malnutrition has been cut from 29 per cent to 22 per cent between 2005-2006 and 2012.

“Results of the survey show that the efforts of partners in Haiti in these three years contributed to progress in many sectors and mitigated the impact on children of the 2010 earthquake, the outbreak of cholera and other disasters.” said the representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Haiti, Edouard Beigbeder.

“These findings call for a continued commitment to support the country in sustaining this success while addressing existing challenges and where progress has lagged,” he continued.

The Caribbean nation has been re-building since the earthquake struck in early January 2010, killing some 220,000 people and making 1.5 million others homeless, in addition to causing widespread destruction – particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince – and a major humanitarian crisis.

The DHS 2012 was conducted by the Institut Haitien de l’Enfance, under the overall direction of the country’s Ministry of Population and Public Health, and was supported by UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), amongst others.

The survey also notes that the under-five mortality rate, at 88 child deaths per 1,000 live births, has shown a declining trend in the last 15 years, according to new estimates, down from 112 in 1997-2001 and 96 in 2002-2006.

Access to improved sources of water remained unchanged at 65 per cent, while 82 per cent of residents of internally displaced camps had access to improved sources of water. Access to improved sanitation almost doubled from 14 per cent in 2005-2006 to 26 per cent in 2012.

The 2012 Haiti DHS estimates socio-economic, demographic and health indicators for the entire Haitian population, including women of child-bearing age, children under five years of age, men aged between 15 and 59 years old. The last survey took place between October 2005 and June 2006.

The largest of the quakes on the Richter scale hit a border area near Yiliang county in Yunnan and Weining county in Guizhou province at 11:19 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) on Friday, according to Xinhua news.

By mid-afternoon, authorities had moved more than 100,000 from the area as a series of more than 60 aftershocks struck.

More than 20,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in Yunnan, according to the Yunnan Provincial Civil Affairs Bureau.

Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, visited the quake-stricken area on Saturday and met some of the evacuees saying  that the first 72 hours are critical for post-quake rescue operations. Wen said rescuers must make their utmost efforts to find and rescue survivors.

Zhang Junwei, a spokesperson from the Yunnan seismological bureau, said that the deaths all occurred in Yiliang.

The main quake, which occurred at a depth of 14km, was followed by a series of aftershocks, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said. Meanwhile, the US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the largest quake at 5.6 and said it struck at a depth of 10km.

Xinhua said the provincial government had sent work teams to the quake-hit area and the civil affairs department was shipping thousands of tents, blankets and coats to the area while the local government authorities ordered people out of their homes, which are spread across the hills of a mountain valley, and told them to gather in the public square.

Southwestern China is prone to earthquakes. In May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude tremor killed tens of thousands of people.

Gholamreza Masoumi, the country’s head of emergency services said that the injured were being taken to Tabriz, the biggest city in the region, and Ardebil, a neighouring province.

The quakes measured 6.2 and 6.0 on themagnitude scale, according to Tehran University’s Seismological Centre while the US Geological Survey, ranked them as stronger than that, at 6.4 and 6.3, respectively.

Tehran University’s Seismological Centre said the first earthquake hit at 4:53pm local time (12:23 GMT), with an epicentre just 60km from Tabriz, close to the town of Ahar, and a depth of 10km. The second – a big aftershock – hit 11 minutes later from nearly the same spot. A series of at least 10 smaller aftershocks rating 4.7 or below rapidly followed, according to Reuters. 

The disaster zone was located around 90 kilometres from the borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan, and around 190 kilometres from the border with Turkey, state TV said.

Authorities feared the death toll could rise as rescuers were still trying to reach people trapped under rubble.

According to local officials, 4 villages have been destroyed completely, while 60 others have sustained damage from 50 to 80 percent only in Ahar region, Fars news agency said.

According to the report of Presidential Office website, the cabinet members in the message expressed their deep sorrow over the incident and expressed sympathy with victims’ families.

The government called on all natural disaster headquarters and responsible bodies to mobilize all their possibilities and releif equipment and provide quake-stricken areas with all kinds of necessary assistance.

One person working a night shift died in the collapse of a plastic-producing factory near Ferrara and two others were killed in the collapse of another building, rescue services said on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

Italy’s Sky TG24 showed images of the collapsed ceramics factory where the two workers were reportedly killed.

Thousands of people in the area poured into the streets after the quake, felt in the major towns of Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo, Verona and Mantua in Northern Italy.

The eartquake  lasted around 20 seconds and was followed by several aftershocks. The quake, which initially registered at magnitude 6.3, was centered 35km north-northwest of Bologna in northern Italy at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the USGS said. The initial quake was followed about an hour later by a 4.9-magnitude temblor, Italy’s civil protection said. And it was preceded by a magnitude-4.1 quake in the same area, according to SKY TG24

In late January, a 5.4-magnitude quake shook northern Italy. Some office buildings in Milan were evacuated as a precaution and there were scattered reports of falling masonry and cracks in buildings.

The last major earthquake to hit Italy was a 6.3 magnitude quake in the central Italian city of L’Aquila in 2009, leaving behind nearly 300 people dead.