Rasoul Rashki, provincial head of the Red Crescent Society, said an 18-year-old woman was killed in the quake which was followed by several aftershocks, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Local reports that two other people were killed could not be immediately confirmed, Rashki said.

Abdolrahman Shahnavazi, the provincial head of disaster management, was quoted by state television as saying some houses were damaged in several villages.

The US Geological Survey put the earthquake’s magnitude at 5.5 and said it struck 200 km southwest of the city of Zahedan at a depth of 26 km (16 miles).

Iran is crossed by major geological fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years. Last November, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit western Kermanshah province, killing at least 620 people and injuring thousands.

In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 quake in southeastern Kerman province killed 31,000 people and flattened the historic city of Bam.