A 5.2 magnitude earthquake has just struck Central Iran as Israel continues its attack on Tehran.

The quake's epicentre was just outside the city of Semnan, around 210km east of the capital.

At 35 meters of depth, the quake is regarded as shallow.

It comes as the two countries have been exchanging missile fire over the last week.

Two Iranian tourists visit natural landforms created by wind erosion in arid desert environments in the Shahdad Kalut Desert near the city of Kerman

The location of the epicentre

On May 28, an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 struck the southern Iran region at a depth of 27 kilometers.

It comes just hours after the head of the UN nuclear watchdog warned against attacks on nuclear facilities and called for maximum restraint.

Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, told the UN Security Council: "Armed attack on nuclear facilities... could result in radioactive releases with great consequences within and beyond the boundaries of the state which has been attacked."

He spoke a day after an Israeli military official said it had been "a mistake" for a military spokesperson to have said Israel had struck Bushehr, Iran's only nuclear power plant. He said he could neither confirm nor deny that Russian-built Bushehr, located on the Gulf coast, had been hit.

Israel has been striking Iran as tensions escalate in the Middle EastREUTERS

Iran said on Friday its air defences had been activated in Bushehr, without elaborating. Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities but that it wants to avoid any nuclear disaster.