Central Asia quake kills 72, flattens mountainous villages

A powerful earthquake killed at least 72 people in Kyrgyzstan and levelled a village in the remote mountains of the Central Asian state, the emergencies ministry said yesterday.

The earthquake, measuring 6.6 according to the US Geological Survey, jolted an area between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - Central Asia's most densely populated corner.

But worst affected were the high-altitude villages of south Kyrgyzstan where one settlement was destroyed completely and the fate of a scattering of others remained unclear.