At least 50 people have been killed and 800 injured after several earthquakes in western Iran, local officials said.

The quakes, with magnitudes of up to six, centred on remote villages between the industrial towns of Doroud and Boroujerd in the province of Lorestan.

About 330 villages have been damaged - some completely flattened, Lorestan's disaster control committee chief said.

Lorestan's governor said hospitals were full to capacity and he called for assistance from surrounding areas.

Ali Barani, head of Lorestan's disaster control committee, told Reuters news agency the number of casualties was not expected to rise significantly because initial tremors on Thursday night had provided a warning to residents.

The first tremors, measuring 4.7 and 5.1 on the Richter scale, hit at about 0105 (Thursday 2135 GMT), the official Irna news agency reported.

Many villagers fled their houses in fear and set up tents outside for the night.

Telephone lines, electricity and gas supplies had been cut in some areas, Doroud's governor told Irna.

Flimsy buildings

"We are afraid to get back home. I spent the night with my family and guests in open space last night," Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri told the Associated Press news agency by telephone.

Experts say the earthquake is moderate in scale, however in the past such tremors have killed thousands in rural areas of Iran, where houses are built with brick and often poorly constructed.

Iran straddles a major geological fault line and is regularly struck by powerful earthquakes.

Some 40,000 people died when the ancient city of Bam was levelled by an earthquake in December 2003.

In February 2005, more than 600 people died in a 6.4 magnitude quake centred in a remote area near Zarand in Iran's Kerman province.

Another powerful quake hit Kerman in southern Iran in November 2004, killing 400.

PHOTO CAPTION

People dig through the rubble of a village flattened by two strong earthquakes in western Iran early Friday March 31, 2006 in this image from Iranian television. (AP)