A powerful earthquake toppled mud-built homes and flattened villages in central Iran today, killing at least 270 people and injuring 950, officials said. A senior official said the death toll could top 350.

TV footage showed residents frantically digging through piles of debris looking for loved ones following the 6.4-magnitude earthquake, which struck at 5:55 a.m. While homes made of mud collapsed, buildings of cement appeared not to sustain heavy damage.

Survivors pleaded for help finding the buried: “What a catastrophe. Please help us,” one said. Rain was hampering rescue efforts.

The quake’s epicenter was on the outskirts of Zarand, a town of about 15,000 people 35 miles northwest of Kerman, the capital of Kerman province, said the seismological unit of Tehran University’s Geophysics Institute. The mountainous area is in the same province but northwest of Bam, where a quake killed 26,000 people in 2003.

“All hospitals in Zarand are filled to capacity with the injured. Hospitals in the town cannot receive any more of the injured,” the broadcast said.

Sarbagh, a village near Zarand, was one of the villages affected by the quake. About 80 percent of its buildings were destroyed by the quake.

Kerman provincial governor Mohammad Ali Karimi was quoted as saying that “several villages have been destroyed” by the earthquake.

Mostafa Soltani, a spokesman at Kerman Governor General Office, said officials expect the final death toll to surpass 350.

Soltani said the experience of the more powerful earthquake in 2003 in the nearby region helped local authorities cope with the latest quake.

“The earthquake in 2003 gave us a very good experience of how to deal with such a natural disaster.

“Despite the rain, relief operations are going smoothly. Relief teams have reached the villages and are helping the survivors,” he said.

The television quoted the governor of Zarand, identified only as Rashidi, as saying that power in the region has been disrupted.

He said medical and other supplies were needed, especially medicine, syringes and tents.

Zarand, 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, is a small town in Kerman Province with a population of about 15,000 people.