The authorities were still assessing casualties and damage from the 8:32 am (0402 GMT) quake, the news agency said citing the head of the seismology section of Tehran University, Mohammad Reza Qaytanchi.

The historic city of Bam, 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Kerman, was already rocked by an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale on August 4.

Earthquakes are frequent in Iran. Some 950 have hit the country since 1991, killing about 17,600 people and injuring another 53,500, according to figures from IRNA.

On July 11, two successive earthquakes measuring 5.6 and 5.8 killed one person and injured 25 in southern Iran.

TERRA.WIRE