Magnitude 6.3 earthquake hits southern Iran

An earthquake measuring 6.3 on Richter scale hit southern Iran on Monday, 133 miles (214 km) southwest of the town of Zahedan, the US Geological Survey said.                          

The quake struck at a depth of 7.7 miles, it said, giving no further details.

An official in the governor's office of the Kerman province, where the quake occurred, told Reuters by telephone that there were no initial reports of casualties or damage.

The province of Kerman is highly prone to earthquakes. Some 31,000 people were killed when an earthquake razed the city of Bam there in 2003.  

Kerman is not one of the oil-producing regions of Iran, the world's fourth-biggest crude exporter.