Earthquake injures 16 people in southern Iran

Tehran: Sixteen people were injured when a 5.3-magnitude earthquake jolted southern Iran on Wednesday, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

"Seventeen villages in the area have been damaged," Mehr quoted a local official, Hamid Taqizadeh, as saying.

The quake hit close to the town of Ardakan, in the southern province of Fars, at 9:25 a.m. (0555 GMT), Tehran University's seismological centre reported on its website.

Earthquakes are common in Iran. In 2003, about 30,000 people were killed in a quake that devastated the southeastern city of Bam. Last month an earthquake in northeastern Iran killed at least seven people and injured hundreds.