A POWERFUL earthquake has struck near Iran's Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 20 people and injuring 650 but leaving Iran's only nuclear power plant intact, officials say.
Shocks from the quake were felt across the Gulf in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, provoking panic and the brief evacuation of some office towers, residents and media said.
At least 20 bodies had been taken to the morgue in the city of Khormoj, an unnamed hospital official told Iranian state news agency IRNA.
Khormoj, east of provincial capital Bushehr, is about 35km from Kaki.
Bushehr provincial Governor Fereydoon Hasanvand said at least 650 people needed medical help.
There were no immediate details on where the casualties occurred, but the head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, said it appeared at least one village near Khormoj had been razed.
Media reports said search and rescue teams had been sent to the area, where telephones and electricity had been cut.
Meanwhile, Hasanvand told state television "no damage at all has been caused" to the nuclear plant.
The facility's chief engineer, Mahmoud Jafari, told Arabic-language Al-Alam television "no operational or security protocols were breached".
The 6.1 magnitude quake hit at 4.22pm (2152 AEST) with a depth of 12 kilometres, in the area of Kaki, nearly 90km southeast of Bushehr, the Iran Seismological Centre said.
The agency has so far reported more than a dozen after shocks, the strongest at 5.3 magnitude.
The US Geological Survey ranked the quake at a more powerful 6.3 magnitude.
In Dubai, hundreds of kilometres down the Gulf from Bushehr and home to the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, local media reported that several high-rise buildings were briefly evacuated.
"Chandeliers were shaking," tweeted one resident.
Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes.
A double earthquake struck northwest Iran last August, killing more than 300 people.
In December 2010, a big quake struck the southern city of Bam, killing 31,000.
The long-delayed Bushehr nuclear power plant is yet to become fully operational.
Iran is at loggerheads with world powers over its development of a controversial nuclear program, which the Western and Israel suspect is aimed at military objectives despite Tehran's denials.
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