A powerful earthquake has struck southeast Iran near the border with Pakistan.
Officials have so far given differing assessments of the casualty toll as communications to the area have been badly disrupted.
Iranian state television said at least 40 people were killed, but acknowledged it had no official confirmation.
One Iranian official said hundreds of people were feared to have been killed.
However, an Iranian politician from the region said the number of deaths was "not high".
A Pakistani official said at least five people have been killed there.
Tremors from the 7.8 magnitude quake were also felt as far away as India and Gulf states.
The quake was centred in a remote desert and mountain region, which is not densely populated.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 11.44am Irish time at a depth of 15.2km.
The epicentre was 201km southeast of Zahedan and 250km northwest of Turbat in Pakistan, it said.
An Iranian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: "It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead".
But Iranian politician Hamid Reza Pashang told the Mehr news agency: "I have talked to the people of Zabul, Saravan, Khash and other areas hit by the earthquake and they have said, the earthquake was not of a kind to cause many deaths," he said.
It was not clear how he had reached them, given the breakdown in power and communications.
Iran's Fars news agency reported that Saravan city had not suffered serious damage.
The Iranian Red Crescent's Mahmoud Mozaffar told state television that rescue and evaluation teams have been sent to the affected area.
The Russian company that built Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant has said it was not damaged by the earthquake.
Bushehr is Iran's only nuclear power plant and is located near the Gulf coast in western Iran.
Last week, a 6.1 magnitude quake in the country killed 37 people and destroyed dozens of villages.
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