Earthquake hits southern Iran, no casualties reported

An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude jolted a mountainous area of southern Iran on Friday but a local official said there were no reports of casualties.

"The quake took place at 1603 local time (1233 GMT) near Firouzabad in the Fars province. It jolted the mountainous area," Iran's state TV quoted Tehran University's Seismological Centre as saying.

"Fortunately the quake did not cause any casualties," television quoted a local official as saying.

Another earthquake with the magnitude of 3.9 hit a nearby area at 1323 GMT, Iranian media reported.

"The second earthquake hit an area west of the town of Khonj and it caused minor damage to some houses in a nearby village," the governor of Khonj, identified only as Tadayon, was quoted as saying by television.

The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 5.6 and said it was 10.1km (6.3 miles) deep.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is criss-crossed by major faultlines and is frequently hit by earthquakes. In 2008 a magnitude 6.1 quake struck Bandar Abbas, on the mainland near the southern Qeshm island, killing at least seven people and injuring 40.

An earthquake in 2003 flattened the desert citadel city of Bam and killed 31,000 people.