Six out of 10 buildings in Tehran fall short of seismic standards and are likely to suffer serious damage in the event of a major earthquake, the Hamshahri newspaper reported Wednesday.
"Sixty percent of the buildings do not comply with the anti-seismic standards and will be seriously damaged" in the case of a quake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, the head of the city's risk management department Reza Karami-Mohammadi was quoted as saying.
Twenty percent of buildings in the capital would be "completely destroyed" in the case of such a quake, he added.
The remarks were made during a council meeting at which Karami-Mohammadi reportedly pleaded for renovations in areas with the oldest buildings to limit the damage from earthquakes.
Iran is located on the edge of several tectonic plates and crossed by several fault lines.
The Tehran metropolitan area has a population of over nine million.
In May last year, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake whose epicentre was 55 kilometres (34 miles) from the capital killed one person and injured more than 20 others.
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