Quake rocks Mozambique
2006-02-23 07:26
Harare - A strong earthquake rocked large
parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe on Thursday, sending people
into the streets as far away as Harare and Maputo, but there
were no immediate reports of casualties.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) website said the quake,
which struck just after midnight,
measured an estimated 7.5 and was centred in northern
Mozambique, an area not known for dangerous seismic activity.
In Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, panic-stricken apartment
dwellers poured into the streets but a spokesperson for the fire
and ambulance service said they had received no emergency calls.
In the city of Mutare, about 270km to the
west close to the Mozambique border, residents said the
earthquake jolted houses and apartment buildings but did not
appear to have caused widespread damage.
"It sounded like an explosion, but I haven't heard of any
casualties," said a local journalist contacted by telephone.
Mutare, a city of about one million in Zimbabwe's
mountainous Eastern Highlands, is where President Robert Mugabe
is due to hold a major celebration on Saturday to mark his 82nd
birthday.
Residents of Mozambique's capital Maputo - about 1 000 km south of the quake's epicentre - also took to the
streets after the tremor, the first many could remember in the
coastal city.
Mozambique state radio issued a brief report saying the
quake was centred near Estungabera in northern Manica province
- a largely rural area near the Zimbabwe border.
It said the tremor was felt over large parts of the country,
but did not give any reports of damage or injuries. Police and
emergency services officials were not immediately available for
comment.
"An earthquake of this size shakes the ground for quite a
distance away from its epicentre so we're expecting that there
is damage from this earthquake," said William Leith, a USGS
earthquake specialist.
"It's a significant and unexpected earthquake in this
region," he said by telephone from the USGS headquarters in
Reston, Virginia. "We'll expect aftershocks from an earthquake
this large."
(Additional reporting by Mateus Chale in Maputo)