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Powerful quake kills 21 in Albania as buildings bury residents - UPDATED - 1

26 November 2019 23:30 (UTC +04:00)

At least 21 people were killed when the most powerful earthquake to strike Albania in decades shook the capital Tirana and the country’s west and north on Tuesday, tearing down buildings and burying residents under rubble, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Residents, some carrying babies, fled apartment buildings in Tirana and the western port of Durres after the 6.4 magnitude quake struck shortly before 4 a.m. (0300 GMT).

The Balkan country was jolted by 100 aftershocks after the main tremor, two of them of magnitude 5, testing strained nerves.

In the northern town of Thumane, Marjana Gjoka, 48, was sleeping in her apartment on the fourth floor of a five-storey building when the quake shattered the top of the building.

16:02

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Albania, bringing down buildings and leaving people trapped under rubble, APA reports citing BBC News.

At least 13 people have died. One man was killed after jumping from a window in panic, a defence ministry spokeswoman said.

The quake hit 34 km (21 miles) north-west of the capital, Tirana, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Hours later, a separate earthquake struck the city of Mostar in Bosnia. There were no reports of casualties.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter: "We have victims. We are working to do everything possible in the affected areas."

More than 600 people have been treated in hospital, Albanian state media reported, including more than 300 in Tirana and in the coastal city of Durres.

Schools will be closed for the day.

Emergency workers told Albanian media that one of the dead was an elderly woman who had managed to save her grandson by cradling him with her body.

The defence ministry spokeswoman confirmed firefighters and army staff were helping residents caught under the rubble in Durres, where four people were killed.

Three of those who died were in the town of Thumane, 40km to the north-west of Tirana and close to the epicentre. There are fears more people are trapped under rubble.

The man who jumped from the balcony was killed further north, in Kurbin. Another person died in Lezha.

Tuesday's earthquake has been described by authorities as the strongest to hit Albania in three decades.

In 1979, a magnitude 6.9 quake hit Albania leaving 136 dead and more than 1,000 injured.