Quake hits island off south Iran, five hurt: media

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit an island off Iran's southern coast on Sunday, injuring five people and damaging buildings, Iranian media said.

The tremor struck an area around the town of Dargahan on Qeshm island, at the entrance to the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world's traded oil passes.

"So far only the collapse of walls of houses in the villages of Zainabieh and Koohi has been reported," Qeshm Governor Mehdi Irannejad told ISNA news agency.

Another news agency quoted the governor as saying five people had received treatment after being injured by the quake, which struck seven km (4 miles) east of Dargahan.

The governor told Iranian media that 2,000 tents were ready in case they were needed, and medical teams with supplies and rescue equipment had been sent to check villages near Dargahan.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is criss-crossed by faultlines and often experiences earthquakes.

A powerful quake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck southern Iran in September near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the mainland near Qeshm island, killing at least seven people and injuring 40, 15 of them on Qeshm.

(Writing by Fredrik Dahl and Edmund Blair; editing by Tim Pearce)