Strong earthquake hits Central Asia

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck 35 miles (55 km) east of Sary-Tash near the borders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at 9:52 p.m. (1552 GMT). It had a depth of 21.7 miles (35 km), the survey reported.

The Kyrgyz emergencies ministry said it had information that a quake measuring 8.5 on a 12-level scale assessing earthquake intensity jolted the densely populated southern region of Osh.

"There are no reports of casualties or destruction. We are checking all information," Ramis Satybekov, an emergencies ministry official, told Reuters by telephone from Osh.

An earthquake of magnitude 6 and over is capable of causing severe damage. The earthquake was also felt in the capitals of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Alla Pyatibratova, a Kyrgyz journalist working in Osh, said there was no visible destruction in Kyrgyzstan's second-biggest city.

"Everyone felt the earthquake and immediately ran outside. I did not see anything destroyed. People returned to their homes after a while," she said from Osh.

The U.S. agency initially reported the magnitude as 6.9, but revised it downward. There was an aftershock of magnitude 5.7, USGS said.

The border area between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan lies in a seismically active part of Central Asia and earthquakes are frequent in this most densely populated part of the former Soviet region.

In 1966, the Uzbek capital Tashkent was flattened by a 7.5 earthquake when hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless. A 6.0 magnitude quake on the 12-level rocked Tashkent this August but there was no damage.

(Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Maria Golovnina)