An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 5.9 shook a sparsely populated area of southern Iran on Sunday, flattening seven villages, killing 10 people and injuring 70, officials and state-run television said. The temblor was felt as far away as Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier, the official IRNA news agency reported that at least five people were killed and dozens wounded.

But Heidar Alishvandi, governor of Qeshm, the epicenter of the quake, was quoted later as saying that a landslide that followed the quake caused additional damage.

Four villages were also destroyed by the quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, which was felt for nearly 10 seconds, he told the state television.

Rescue teams were dispatched to the affected areas immediately, which are all located in less populated areas of the island, and the biggest town of the island, also called Qeshm, remained undamaged, said the official.

The quake hit the southern Iranian coastline at around 1:30 PM (10:00 GMT), the official IRNA news agency reported, adding that the epicenter of the quake was at the Qeshm Island near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

It was reported that the quake was even felt in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran is situated n some of the world's most active seismic fault lines and quakes of varying magnitudes are frequently witnessed.

On Dec. 26, 2003, a quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit the southeastern city Bam, killing nearly 262,000 people. On Feb. 22, 2004, another quake measuring 6.4 laid more than 600 dead and 1400 injured on the outskirt of Zarand, a town 250 km northwest of Bam.

(Xinhua News Agency Chinadaily.com via agencies, November 28, 2005)