5.5-magnitude earthquake jolts southern Iran

An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale has hit a southern Iranian province, but there was no immediate report on possible damage or casualties.

The earthquake struck the town of Ziarat-e Ali in Hormozgan Province at around 4 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) on Monday, the Seismological Center of the Institute of Geophysics of Tehran University said.

The quake occurred at a depth of 20 kilometers and the epicenter was about 110 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Bandar Abbas, IRNA reported.