Major earthquake rocks Iran

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake has struck southeastern Iran near the border with Pakistan, reportedly killing at least 45 people with casualties feared to rise, according multiple news sources.

The US Geological Survey said on Tuesday that the epicentre of the quake was 86km southeast of Khash, Iran.

The head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, told ISNA news agency that evaluation teams were dispatched to the affected area.

A powerful 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on April 9, killing 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two villages.

According to the Iranian FARS news agency, 40 people were killed in the sparsely populated region. 

An Iranian government official said on he feared more casualties from the earthquake.

"It was the biggest earthquake in Iran in 40 years and we are expecting hundreds of dead," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

A resident in the quake zone, Manouchehr Karimi, told AP by phone that "the quake period was long'' and occurred "when many people were at home to take a midday nap".

Tall buildings shook in India's capital New Delhi, sending people running into the streets, witnesses said.

It also shook buildings and forced high-rise offices to be evacuated in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

The quake also shook large parts of Pakistan including Islamabad, where buildings swayed, and the largest city Karachi, where tremors also prompted many to flee buildings in terror.

Most of Iran's nuclear-related facilities are located in central Iran or its west, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast. A U.S. Institute for Science and International Security map did not show any nuclear-linked facilities in southeastern Iran close to Pakistan.

In Panjgur in the Pakistan state of Balochistan, five more people were confirmed killed. In a village called Mashkel, dozens of mud houses have reportedly collapsed. 

Many buildings in Karachi were reportedly evacuated.

In the Indian capital New Delhi, tall buildings shook sending people running into the streets, witnesses told Reuters.

Across the Gulf, people also evacuated shaking buildings in Qatar and Dubai, residents said. Dubai has the world's tallest tower, the 828-metre Burj Khalifa.

Last week, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake also hit Iran killing at least 37 people and injuring 850 more in the country's southwest.

In December 2003, a big earthquake struck the southern city of Bam. It killed 31,000 people - about a quarter of the population - and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.