UPDATE 1 -- Strong earthquake jolts Russia-Mongolia border region, no damage

[News_Editor]

UPDATE 1 -- Strong earthquake jolts Russia-Mongolia border region, no damage

2011-12-28 12:18:54 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck southwestern Siberia near the border with Mongolia on late Tuesday evening, seismologists and officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.6-magnitude earthquake at 10.21 p.m. local time (1521 GMT) was centered about 96 kilometers (59 miles) east of Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva Republic in Russia. It struck about 6.9 kilometers (4.3 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Residents near the epicenter in the mountainous region fled their homes in panic, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The USGS estimated that approximately 2,000 people may have felt strong shaking while 229,000 others may have felt light to moderate shaking.

"Everything is all right. Our dispatchers work round the clock and they did not receive any calls on any destruction," a spokesman for the regional office of Russia's Emergencies Ministry told RIA Novosti. Officials however said phone services in the region were temporarily overwhelmed.

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