BISHKEK (Reuters) - A weekend earthquake killed 58 people in Kyrgyzstan and destroyed dozens of houses in the rural south of the Central Asian nation, the emergencies ministry said on Monday.
The earthquake, measuring 6.3 according to the U.S. Geological Survey, jolted an area between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- Central Asia's most densely populated corner prone to instability and ethnic tension.
"We are continuing rescue operations to see if anyone may be still buried under the debris," said an emergencies ministry spokesman from the regional centre of Osh.
The spokesman said another 50 people were injured and at least 128 houses in the high-altitude village of Nura on Kyrgyzstan's border with China had been destroyed.
"Some have been severely injured," the spokesman said.
The Kyrgyz emergencies ministry originally said it had no information of major destruction or casualties.
Earthquakes are frequent in Central Asia, a region wedged between Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and China.
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 rocked Tashkent this August but there was no damage.
(Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Caroline Drees)
