Earthquake takes toll in southeastern Iran

A major earthquake rocked southeastern Iran Tuesday night, killing as many as 5,000 people, Iran's official Pars News Agency reports. Pars said preliminary figures showed 400 people were injured and 90 percent of the villages in the quake area destroyed.

The quake, measuring 6.5 to 7 on the Richter scale, was centered in the town of Anduhjerd, 510 miles southeast of Tehran and 30 miles east of the city of Kerman. About half the earthquake area was said to be buried unde r rubble.