A strong earthquake hit Albania Saturday afternoon, forcing residents into the street in several cities, causing power cuts in the capital and collapsing some buildings in a nearby village.
The epicentre of the quake, with a magnitude of 5.6 and a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), was near Durres, less than 40 kilometres west of the capital Tirana, according to the US Geological Survey.
According to early media reports, at least two people were lightly injured and a dozen houses collapsed in the village of Helmes some 10 kilometres from Tirana.
Windows broke and fissures appeared on buildings in Durres, as well as in the capital, local media reported.
Electricity and telephone lines were cut off in Tirana and a number of other towns and villages, media reports said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.