Quakes hit south Iran: report

AFP

A series of earthquakes hit southern Iran's Kerman province on Thursday, damaging dozens of houses in the affected villages, state television website said.

The strongest, at 6.0-magnitude, hit near the town of Mohammadabad-Rigan at around 12:08 pm (08:38 GMT) and was followed by a 4.8-magnitude aftershock at 12:13 pm (08:43 GMT), the report said.

Earlier on Thursday Mohammadabad-Rigan was hit with jolts measuring 5.1 and 4.0.

Local officials said the earthquakes caused no casualties.

But "70 percent of houses and gardens in the Chah Ghanbar (rural) area have been destroyed and roads to the region have been blocked," town governor Mohammad Berzang was quoted by the state broadcaster's website as saying.

Deputy provincial governor Mohammad Javad Kamyab told ISNA news agency that "50 houses have been damaged in Dazan village" in Kerman province.

Berzang told the Fars news agency that "the epicentre of the quake was in a mountainous area. So far we have received no report of any injuries or deaths."

Mohammadabad-Rigan is some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Bam where a December 2003 6.3-magnitude quake killed 31,000 people -- about a quarter of its population -- and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.

Iran sits astride several major fault lines in the Earth's crust and is prone to devastating seismic activity.