TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A Belgian couple has gone missing outside the historical town of Bam in southeastern Iran, a local governor said Monday. The region is known for drug smuggling and has a history of kidnappings of Western tourists.

"Two Belgian tourists, a husband and wife, who traveled to Bam to visit historical sites went missing Sunday in the Fahraj district," Bam governor Majid Etemadi told the state IRNA news agency.

Fahraj is 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of the ancient city of Bam and on the road to Zahedan, a provincial capital in southeastern Iran.

Etemadi said the couple, 27 and 30 years old, were traveling in a private car. Police were investigating. No other details were immediately available.

"Police and security officials based in that district pursuing this issue," IRNA also quoted Etemadi as saying.

No other details were immediately available and it was not known if the tourists have been kidnapped or not. A few Western tourists were kidnapped there in the late 1990s and foreign tourists are usually advised to exercise prudence while visiting southeastern Iran.

In the latest incident, two Germans and an Irish citizen, were kidnapped in 2003 while cycling through the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. They were later freed but no details were released as to how their liberation came about. The government blamed drug smugglers, who were reported to have demanded ransom, for the kidnapping.

Also in 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake flattened Bam, killing about 26,000 people. The quake also leveled most of Arg-e-Bam, or Citadel of Bam, the world's largest mud-brick fortress.