Four dead, 150 injured in Albania earthquake: authorities
Four people died and some 150 were slightly injured after a powerful 6.4 magnitude rocked Albania early Tuesday, authorities said.
A man in his fifties jumped out of his building in the town of Kurbin in a panic and died, the defence ministry said.
The bodies of a man and a woman were removed from rubble in Thumane, north of the capital Tirana, it said. A fourth body was found in the coastal town of Durres.
At least 150 people with injuries were being treated in hospitals in Tirana and Durres, Health Minister Ogerta Manasterliu said.
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The quake was felt across the Balkans, from Sarajevo to Bosnia and even in the Serbian city of Novi Sad almost 700 kilometres away, according to reports in local media and on social networks.
It was followed by several aftershocks, including one of magnitude 5.3, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
The same region of Albania was hit by a 5.6-magnitude quake in September, described by authorities as the strongest earthquake of the last 20-30 years.
The Balkans is an area prone to seismic activity and earthquakes are frequent.