A powerful earthquake has struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station, killing at least 32 people and injuring 850 more as it devastated small villages, according to state media reports.

Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to a local politician and the Russian company that built it.

Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud brick, which can easily crumble in a quake.

Al Jazeera's Mereana Hond reports.