Quake felt across central and east Africa
A powerful earthquake in Lake Tanganyika was felt across east and central Africa today, sending workers in the centre of Nairobi fleeing their offices in panic.
The United States Geological Survey said its 6.8 measurement was preliminary. It located the epicentre about six miles below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, between Congo and Tanzania. Quakes of magnitude 7 can cause widespread and heavy damage.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, but Kathleen Gohn of the United States Geological Survey said the quake “may have caused damage due to its location and size”.
The quake was felt in Nairobi, some 600 miles from Lake Tanganyika, at about 4.20pm local time.
“We felt the tremor in our offices. People fled their buildings to save their lives, but so far we have no reports of casualties,” said Elmon Mahawa, the regional commissioner for Kigoma, a Tanzanian town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika that the United States Geological Survey said was 90 miles from the centre of the quake.
The region is located along the Great Rift Valley, which runs for 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique.
The quake was felt as far as southern Tanzanian towns bordering Zambia and Malawi, Tanzania’s meteorological chief Mohamed Mhita told The Associated Press by telephone from the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
There were also reports of tremors being felt even further south on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake.
Henri Burgard, UN spokesman in the Congolese town of Uvira, said the shaking lasted 30 seconds.
“The buildings shook quiet strongly. We have no reports of deaths so far,” he said soon after the quake was felt in Uvira.
In Bujumbura, the capital of the central African nation of Burundi, an Associated Press reporter felt the three-storey building he was in swing and he felt two shocks.
Workers in buildings in central Nairobi left their offices in panic. The quake was also felt in Mombasa, on Kenya’s coast.
