DUBAI, April 16 (Reuters) - The number of deaths in a powerful earthquake that hit Iran on Tuesday was "not high", an Iranian lawmaker from the region told the Mehr news agency.
"From what we have heard from people in the stricken areas, we have learned that the number of deaths is not high," Hamid Reza Pashang said.
"I have talked to the people of Zabul, Saravan, Khash and other areas hit by the earthquake and they have said, the earthquake was not of a kind to cause many deaths," he said.
It was not immediately clear how he had reached them, given reports of a breakdown in power and communication systems in the affected region that made information hard to verify.
Iranian state television earlier said at least 40 people were killed, but acknowledged there was no official confirmation.
The Iranian Students News Agency quoted an official at the Emergency Medical Center at the Sistan and Baluchistan Medical University saying three people had been wounded.
Five people were killed in southwestern Pakistan from the quake that struck near the Pakistan border, Pakistani officials said.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Alison Williams)
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