Global General

5.6-magnitude quake hits Cuba, no casualties reported

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-21 15:13

HAVANA - An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale jolted the eastern Cuban province of Guantanamo Saturday. But no casualties have been reported so far.

The tremor, which occurred at 1808 GMT, was centered 45 km southwest of Guantanamo and had a depth of 22.6 km, the US Geological Survey said.

Nuria Martinez, a resident living in Guantanamo, said she felt a strong ground movement, but there seemed no damage to the city's old colonial buildings.

"We felt that the earth shook for quite some time. Perhaps it was about a minute, I do not know," she said, adding that people had run into streets, but they had since gradually returned home.

Vehicles of the Civil Defense with loudspeakers offered guidance to the panic-stricken people, who were asked to keep calm.

"People are scared because it was following very recently the quake in Haiti," said Jasmine Rodriguez, a teacher in Guantanamo.

She said cracked walls and broken windows were seen at two city hospitals.

In the second most important city of the island, Santiago de Cuba, about 50 km from the epicenter, telephone communications were partially disrupted by the quake.

The United States has a military base at Guantanamo, where 188 terrorist suspects were still being held at a detention center.