At least 200 people have been injured after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Iran near the western border with Iraq, Iranian state TV reports.

The tremor was also felt in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and in Kuwait.

“About 200 to 210 people have been injured … but we have had no fatalities,” governor of Kermanshah province Houshang Bazvand told state TV on Sunday.

Fears of aftershocks sent people in several cities in the western province of Kermanshah out onto the streets and parks in cold weather, Iranian media reported.

Rescue teams were immediately deployed to the quake-hit area.

“No reports of any fatalities yet and most of the injured were hurt while fleeing, not due to quake damage,” head of Iran’s emergency services Pirhossein Koulivand told state TV.

The quake triggered landslides but officials said all the roads in the area remained open to traffic and electricity had been restored in most of areas hit by the tremor.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred at a depth of 65km and struck 114km northwest of the city of Ilam, close to Iran’s border with Iraq.

The 6.3 earthquake hit close to the border with Iraq. Photo: USGS

Iranian media said tremors were felt in at least seven provinces of Iran, most strongly in Kermanshah province, where last year over 600 people were killed and thousands injured in Iran’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.

Local officials said reconstruction undertaken after that strong quake should mean there would not be casualties.

Kermanshah governor Bazvand said some 50 people were injured in the town of Sarpol-e Zahab, about 15km from the border, near the quake’s epicentre.

Iran sits astride major fault lines and is prone to frequent tremors.

Last November, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the Kermanshah province.

In 2003, a quake of a magnitude of 6.6 in Kerman province killed 31,000 people and flattened the historic city of Bam.

-Reuters