A moderate earthquake struck north-central Iran at 21:19 local time on Friday, 20 June, with Iran’s national seismological network measuring a magnitude of 5.5. The epicentre was near the town of Sorkheh in Semnan Province, roughly 150 kilometres east of Tehran, and tremors were felt in the capital as well as the cities of Qom, Karaj and other parts of the Alborz region. The United States Geological Survey put the quake at magnitude 5.1, while the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre reported 5.2; all agencies placed the focus at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres and within 40 kilometres of Semnan city. Shaking was strong enough to send residents out of buildings but did not trigger automatic tsunami or regional alerts. State news agency IRNA said there were no immediate reports of casualties or serious structural damage, though the Iranian Red Crescent dispatched rapid-response teams to assess remote villages near the epicentre. Iran sits on several major fault lines and experiences frequent seismic activity, underscoring ongoing concerns about preparedness despite stricter building codes introduced after earlier deadly quakes.