Cyprus rattled by rare earthquake

An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 struck Cyprus on Thursday, sending residents fleeing onto the streets, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage, authorities said.

The Cyprus Geological Survey said the quake struck at 4:27 pm (1427 GMT) near Dasaki Achna, about 18 kilometres (11 miles) northeast of the coastal city of Larnaca, at a depth of 55 kilometres.

The US Geological Survey and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put its strength at magnitude 4.9.

The rare quake was felt "strongly" across the Mediterranean island, including the capital Nicosia, and even as far away as Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, the Cyprus Geological Survey said.

Witnesses said some residents in Nicosia and Larnaca scrambled out into the streets as a safety precaution soon after it struck.

The earthquake also forced the suspension of a parliamentary session to vote on a state budget, the Cyprus News Agency reported.

Police said there were no reports of any injuries or structural damage in the immediate aftermath of the quake.

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 killing two people in Paphos along the west coast.

7.0-magnitude quake strikes off southern Philippines: USGS
Manila (AFP) Jan 21, 2021 - A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern Philippines Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami warning was not issued.

The quake hit about 310 kilometres (193 miles) southeast of Davao city on the main southern island of Mindanao at a depth of 95 kilometres at 8:23 pm local time (1223 GMT), according to USGS.

Residents in the town of Jose Abad Santos, near the southern tip of the island, lost electricity for about 15 minutes after the quake shook the region but there was no damage, police chief Captain Glabynarry Murillo told AFP.

"From our vantage point at the police station we saw many residents rushing outside," said Murillo.

"We also rushed outside because the police station is a three-storey building."

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned of aftershocks but said damage was not expected.

"It was felt extensively because it's a major earthquake but it's deep so it won't be damaging to the infrastructure because it's considerably far (from the island)," Renato Solidum, director of the institute, told DZBB radio station.

The quake was felt on the northern Indonesian island of Sangihe, but similarly there were no injuries or damage reported.

"Here in Sangihe capital, Tahuna people were panicking for a while and they fled home because the quake was quite long and strong," Rivolius Pudihang, head of the disaster mitigation agency in Sangihe, North Sulawesi, told AFP.

"But now things have returned to normal, people have returned home and all is safe."

The Philippines and Indonesia are regularly rocked by quakes due to their positions on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

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Hotel collapses, at least three dead in Indonesia quake: official
Jakarta (AFP) Jan 15, 2021
At least three people were killed and large buildings including a hotel collapsed when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island Friday, authorities said. "Three people are dead and 24 are injured," said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Jati. The country's search-and-rescue agency confirmed that at least one hotel had collapsed after the quake struck at 2:18 am local time Friday (18:18 GMT Thursday). The epicentre was 36 kilometres (22 miles) south of ... read more