Quake hits southern Iran

At least five people were killed in an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude that jolted southeastern Iran, Reuters reported.

"A higher number of casualties is possible because of the vast scale of the damage," Esmail Najjar, governor of Iran's Kerman province, centre of the quake, told Reuters.

State television said at least three villages had been destroyed. "Hundreds of people are trapped under the rubble," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted a local official as saying.

The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 6.3.

The mountainous province is highly prone to earthquakes. Around 26,000 people were killed when an earthquake flattened the city of Bam in 2003.