Cyprus Quake Felt in Lebanon, Region
The tremor of a 6.6-magnitude quake that hit off the west coast of Cyprus early Tuesday, was felt in Lebanon.
There were no reports of casualties or structural damage, although the quake was felt around the region with reports from as far away as Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The strong and relatively shallow quake at 0107 GMT was centered 48 kilometers (30 miles) west-northwest of the town of Polis on the Mediterranean island, the USGS said.
It shook buildings in the capital Nicosia, 130 kilometers away, and some of those who were awake went out into the streets.
"It was frightening. The whole building was shaking endlessly," one Nicosia resident told AFP. "I thought it would never end."
Cyprus police told AFP there were no reports of any injuries or serious structural damage from the quake, but it woke people across the island.
"We were in bed and it woke us up -- it really went on for a long time," Limassol resident Carol Bailey, a 61-year-old French teacher, told AFP.
She said friends who live farther west told her it shook their building and set the lights swinging, while the inside of their fireplace "was making a noise like a horror film".
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre measured the tremor at 6.5 magnitude at a depth of 51 kilometers.
Cyprus lies in a secondary earthquake-prone zone, but tremors of such magnitude are uncommon.
The biggest quake in recent years was a magnitude 6.8 in 1996, which killed two people in Paphos, on the island's west coast.
In 1953, a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 40 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, mostly in the Paphos region.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://cdn.naharnet.com/stories/en/287016 |