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Major quake hits Russian region

MOSCOW: A major earthquake shook a sparsely populated region of Russia's Far East early on Friday, injuring 31 persons and damaging buildings, said the Emergency Situations Ministry. No deaths were reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Japan's Meteorological Agency estimated the temblor just off the Kamchatka Peninsula to be about 7.7 magnitude. Russia's north Pacific coast is on a major tectonic plate and frequently is hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The quake hit at around 12:30 p.m. in the Koryak region, nearly 7,000 km east of Moscow and some 1,000 km north of the largest city in the area, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, said Oleg Kotosanov, a duty officer with the regional emergency department.

It was followed by a series of smaller temblors, including one with a magnitude of 6.1 that was registered five hours later, the USGS said.

Still, the damage appeared to be minimal.

``It is either a wall cracked, or part of the roof, or a porch collapsed,'' Koryak emergency official Alexander Shchayev told The Associated Press.

There have already been three major tremors and a number of smaller ones, he noted.— AP

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