A severe earthquake devastated the historic city of Bam in southeast Iran on Friday, and officials said many people were killed or buried in the rubble.

Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the quake occurred, said he had been told the devastation in the city of 80,000 people was "beyond imagination."

"No death toll is available, but it looks to be very, very high," Khoshrou said.

(A guide to earthquake magnitude and severity)

Iranian television said the magnitude 6.3 quake leveled about 60 percent of the houses in Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital, killing many people as they slept. Authorities put out a call for blood donations.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, capable of causing severe damage, and hit at 5:27 a.m. local time. It reported an aftershock of magnitude 5.4 about two hours later.

"Many people have died," Kerman province Gov. Mohammad Ali Karimi told state media. "Many people are buried under the rubble."

Reports said the earthquake destroyed Bam's medieval fortress, a massive, 2,000-year-old structure that sits on a cliff near the city and attracts thousands of tourists each year. The fortress includes scores of ancient mud huts.

"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," said Mehran Nourbakhsh, chief spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross.

State media reported damage in three villages around Bam and said telephone links with the city were severed. Authorities were in contact with the Bam area through radio and satellite phone links. Electricity and water were also cut.

Authorities have sent numerous rescue workers with helicopters to the area, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"We are doing everything we can to rescue the injured and unearth the dead," television quoted Karimi as saying.

Also Friday, a magnitude 4 rocked the west Iranian town of Masjid Soleiman at 8:10 a.m., but no casualties were immediately reported, state television said. Masjid Soleiman is about 600 miles northwest of Bam.

Iran sits on several fault lines and has seen several devastating earthquakes in recent years. A temblor of magnitude 7.3 to 7.7 killed 50,000 people on June 21, 1990, and most recently, a magnitude 6 quake in June, 2002 killed 500 people.

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