SHIRAZ, Fars Province -- Earthquakes which hit this southern province recently inflicted rls 179 billion in damage, the secretary of the province's Natural Disasters Headquarters, Hamid Taqizadeh, said on Tuesday.

He said the damage caused to more than 35 training buildings was placed at rls 17 billion, and stressed the need for immediate repair or rennovation of these damaged buildings before the start of the new academic year on September 23, IRNA reported.

Two quakes measuring 5.6 and 5.8 on the open-ended Richter scale hit Zarrin-Dasht and Jahrom, respectively, on July 9 claiming two lives and injuring 147.

Zarrin-Dasht, located 300 km southeast of Shiraz, has a population of 70,000 people.

Iran sits on some of the world's active seismic faultlines and tremors of a mild magnitude are almost a daily occurrence.

Since 1991, at least 17,000 Iranians have been killed and more than 53,000 others injured in earthquakes.