TEHRAN: An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit near Iran’s Shia Muslim holy city of Mashhad on Wednesday, local media reported.

It was not immediately clear if there had been casualties or extensive damage from the quake, which struck at 10:39 am (0609 GMT) around 80 kilometres southeast of Iran’s second city in an area called Sepid Sang.

“It was horrible. It made a lot of noise. Everything was shaking,” a Mashhad resident told foreign media by phone.

Iran lies on a major fault line and sees frequent earthquakes.

A 2003 quake killed at least 31,000 people and all but destroyed the historic city of Bam in the southeast of the country.