A 5.5-magnitude earthquake rocked an area near the town of Sirch in Iranian south-eastern province of Kerman on Friday, July 31^st, 2015. According to a report from the Iranian Seismological Centre, the earthquake hit the area at 14:36 local time (10:06 GMT) with the epicentre at a depth of around 8 km.   Hussein Darvishi, Deputy Head of Relief and Rescue Organisation for relief and rescue operations in the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported that 13 assessment teams on the ground and a team from air were immediately deployed by Kerman provincial branch of the Iranian Red Crescent Society to assess the amount of damage in the affected areas following the occurrence of the earthquake.   "No damage and casualties were reported in 3 cities and 15 villages which were affected by the earthquake," noted Darvishi. "The quake only caused fear and panic amongst residents in the affected areas,"   Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive. The biggest and strongest one was in Bam city in the province of Kerman which occurred in December 2003 and killed 31,000 people.