By ELCHIN TEIMURKHANOV
Associated Press Writer
BAKU, Azerbaijan
(AP) — A strong earthquake rocked Azerbaijan's capital, Baku,
killing at least two people and sending panicked residents running
down apartment stairways and crowding in chilly parks.
Azerbaijani
state television reported early Sunday that two people had been
killed, but that there was no major damage to buildings. The report
gave no more details. Most phone lines throughout the small Caucasus
Mountain nation were down, and the electricity was out in much
of Baku.
The earthquake
struck Saturday evening with a magnitude of between 6.1 and 6.3
at its epicenter under the Caspian Sea, according to seismology
centers in various countries.
Streets of
the port city were strewn with broken glass and filled with ambulances
and dazed people. State television urged residents to turn off
electricity and gas, leave their homes and gather in open areas
for fear of aftershocks or falling buildings.
Baku emergency
officials said the center was 60 miles northeast of the city,
while the U.S. Geological Survey said the center was 10 miles
southeast of Baku, and that it came on top of a 5.9 magnitude
quake nearby.
A magnitude
6 quake can cause severe damage, especially in places like Azerbaijan
where few buildings are reinforced against strong shocks. But
aging homes in Baku's colonial old town showed no signs of serious
damage.
Tremors were
felt in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, 300 miles northwest of Baku,
Russia's southern city of Makhachkala in the republic of Dagestan,
and in northern Iran.
Azerbaijan
lies in an area of frequent seismic activity. It was hit before
dawn Saturday with another quake of magnitude 4 centered about
30 miles south of Baku, but no casualties or damages were reported.
Neighboring
Armenia suffered a devastating magnitude 6.9 earthquake in December
1988 that killed 25,000 people and destroyed more than 345 villages
and towns in the then-Soviet republic.
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