No casualties or damage from China quake

There have been no casualties or damage reported in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, and the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, IRIN learnt on Tuesday. This after an earthquake struck northwestern China a day earlier, killing at least 11 people. "The earthquake measured four on the Richter scale in Almaty. We don't have any casualties or damage," Kairzhan Turezhanov, a press-secretary for the Kazakh emergency situations agency, told IRIN from Almaty, adding that in two districts close to Chinese border, Uygur and Kegen, small cracks in some buildings had been reported due to the fact that houses there were mainly made from mud brick, but no collapsed buildings. The earthquake was felt in Almaty in the early hours of Monday, followed by at least 10 minor aftershocks, which measured up to 1.5 on the Richter scale. According to the Kazakh seismology institute, more powerful tremors are not expected. Turezhanov noted that in conjunction with the governorship, their Almaty provincial department on emergency situations was conducting the necessary operations on the ground. His colleague from the Kyrgyz ecology and emergency ministry, Alima Sharipova, told IRIN from the southern city of Osh, where her ministry is located, that according to preliminary information there had been no casualties or damage. "The epicentre of the earthquake was in [northwestern] China," she said, adding that the earthquake which had hit the eastern Kyrgyz city of Karakol at about 04:00 local time on Monday was of a magnitude of four on the Richter scale. The earthquake was also felt in Bishkek at a magnitude of between two and three on the scale, according to the Kyrgyz institute of seismology. Both officials noted that the epicentre of the earthquake had been in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The Chinese Xinhua news agency reported that the quake had measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, hitting Zhaosu County on the border with Kazakhstan at 03:00 local time on Monday, killing 11 people. The local seismological bureau reported that the quake had been the strongest in recent years. According to the GeoHazards International (GHI), a US-based non-profit-making organisation working for global earthquake safety, Central Asia's earthquake activity has long been recognised as one of the highest in the world, with some areas producing over 3,000 tremors per year. Countries in Central Asia had suffered about 280,000 deaths due to earthquakes between 1900 and 2000, GHI said, adding that 3 million people were at risk of death or serious injury in the region's five capital cities due to highly vulnerable, Soviet-era buildings.