Earthquake strikes near Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant

An earthquake of magnitude of 4.9 struck near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant today.

It was centered 53 km east of Bushehr and was relatively shallow - only 10 km deep according to Iranian media - which would have amplified the shaking.

"Survey teams have been dispatched to the area and fortunately ... there are no reports on damage, except some landslides in a mountainous area," Reuters cited head of the provincial emergency department Jahangir Dehqani as saying.

The U.S. Geological Survey earlier said the quake had a magnitude of 5.1. The quake struck at 5.23am local time (0153GMT), at the relatively shallow depth of 38km.