Strong Earthquake Hits Eastern Romania

There have been no reports of injured people after a strong earthquake hit the area of Vrancea in Romania, a known seismic zone.

The epicenter was at a depth of 112 km beneath the surface, 153 km north of the capital Bucharest local media quote officials from Romania's geophysics institute as saying.

Romanian officials set the magnitude at 5.3, while the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center puts it at 5.6 on the Richter scale.

The quake that occurred around 02:11 local time (EEST) was also felt throughout Northeastern Bulgaria and parts Moldova and Ukraine, according to the EMSC. In Bulgaria's capital Sofia, which lies in the west and is further from the area, some residents also say they were waken up by the quake.

In the Danubian city of Ruse, which is kilometers away from the border with Romania, some residents took to the streets in panic, the public radio BNR reports.

A devastating quake in the area of Vrancea in 1977 produced significant camage and claimed lives in Northern Bulgaria, with nearly 120 victims in the town of Svishtov. As many as 1578 people died in Romania alone, most of them in Bucharest.

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