Strong earthquake jolts Uzbekistan's capital
Pastor Dale Morgan
Strong earthquake jolts Uzbekistan's capital*
Reuters
Friday, August 22, 2008; 6:16 AM
ALMATY (Reuters) - A strong earthquake rattled the Uzbek capital
Tashkent on Friday, rocking buildings and sending people running
outdoors in fear, witnesses and the emergency ministry said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The quake hit at 1:26 p.m. (4:36 a.m. EDT) just outside Tashkent, a city
of two million, and registered 6.0 on a 12-level scale measuring
earthquake intensity. No Richter scale figures were available.
"It nearly threw me off my feet," a witness told Reuters. He said he saw
bricks falling from the walls of buildings and people running through
the streets in confusion.
An emergency ministry spokesman said there were no reports of casualties
or destruction.
The witness in Tashkent said he could see no signs of damage or fire,
adding that people were returning to their homes after the initial panic
abated.
Once an oasis town on the ancient Silk Road trading route connecting
Europe with China, Tashkent is located in a seismically active part of
Central Asia.
In 1966, many of Tashkent's ancient mosques and buildings were flattened
by a 7.5 earthquake when hundreds of thousands of people were left
homeless. Another quake hit in 1980, also in the village of Nazarbek but
caused no serious destruction.
(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Richard Balmforth)