An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale has jolted a southern Iranian province, but there was no immediate report on possible damage or casualties.

According to the Seismological Center of the Institute of Geophysics of Tehran University, the earthquake struck the town of Ziarat-e Ali in Hormozgan Province at around 4 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) on Monday, IRNA reported.

The quake occurred at a depth of 20 kilometers and the epicenter was about 110 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Bandar Abbas.

In August, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 hit Ziarat-e Ali, causing considerable material damage.

Iran lies on the fault line between the Arabian plate and the Eurasian plate and earthquakes of various magnitude are a regular occurrence, some of which have been devastating.

In December 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake struck the southern city of Bam, killing 31,000 people and destroying the city's ancient mud-built citadel.