By Kristin Arna Bragadottir
SELFOSS, Iceland (Reuters) - A strong earthquake rockedIceland on Thursday, damaging roads and buildings in one townand sending frightened residents running into the streets.
Police in Selfoss, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of thecapital Reykjavik, said they had received no reports ofinjuries and that damage to buildings in the area had beenrelatively minor.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 3:46p.m. (4:46 p.m.), 6.2 miles (10 km) beneath the earth'ssurface.
In Selfoss, a small southwestern town near the quake'sepicentre, dozens of panicking people poured into the streets.
"I didn't know what was happening. All of a sudden, I feltthe ground moving and saw the shelves shaking and walls in thestore shaking," said Kolbrun Sigurdardottir, a clothing storeclerk in the town.
"I ran out into the street, which was filled with people. Apregnant lady next to me was terrified. We're still shakingwith nerves, but I'm glad everybody is okay," she told Reuters.
Iceland is renowned for its fierce geophysical temper. Theisland, which sits on a fault line, is dotted with geysers andvolcanoes. Earthquakes of magnitudes up to 7.1 have shaken theisland in the past.
The quake hit a day before a planned visit to Iceland byU.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. State Departmentspokesman Sean McCormack, who was with Rice at a conference inSweden on Thursday, said the visit would go ahead.
"EVERYTHING WAS SHAKING"
Selfoss rescue team worker Soffia Sigurdardottir said allavailable teams were out helping people, visting hospitals,schools and other sites. "People are mostly shocked and scaredbut no one is seriously injured so far," she said.
At the famous Blue Lagoon hot springs resort, severalkilometres from the epicentre, receptionist KristrunBragadottir said she had experienced similar tremors before. "Ifelt it. And it is not good."
Residents also felt the impact in Europe's northernmostcapital. "I am in Reykjavik ... everything was shaking. Theglass in the windows shook and everybody was just reallyscared," said economist Audbjorg Olafsdottir.
The Iceland Meterological Office said Thursday's was thestrongest quake to hit the country since two large quakes in2000, which followed 88 years of relative seismic inactivity.
"This is by far the largest since then," said EinarKjartansson, a geophysicist at the office. The main quake wasfollowed by several smaller aftershocks, he said.
Iceland sits on two shifting plates far beneath the earth'ssurface, known as the Eurasian plate and the North Americanplate, which are moving away from each other, not converging,Kjartansson said.
The strongest quakes tend to happen where plates areknuckling up against each other, as they do in California.
Iceland, a North Atlantic island halfway between Europe andNorth America, has a population of about 300,000.
Some four-fifths of its rocky surface is uninhabited. Itwas first settled by Vikings from Norway in the ninth centuryA.D.
(Reporting via Stockholm newsroom; additional reportingSarah Edmonds, Adam Cox and Niklas Pollard; editing by TimPearce)
