DUSHANBE, July 21, 2011, Asia-Plus – In Tajikistan, according to the Committee for Emergency Situations (CES), one person was killed and at least four others injured in an earthquake that occurred in the early morning hours of July 20.

The death was reported in the northern city of Khujand, the capital of Sughd province.  Ismoil Ismoilov, head of the Sughd emergency management agency, told Asia-Plus today that a 43-year-old resident of Khujand Abdullojon Askarov became victim of the tremor.

“Abdullojon Askarov was building a private house and he stayed overnight at the half-finished house,” said Ismoilov, “He apparently jumped out of the second-floor window.  Askarov died of injuries he sustained.”

According to Ismoilov, at least four other residents of Khujand were injured in the quake.  They also jumped out of windows to escape the quake.

We will recall that a tremor measuring 4.0 on a 12-point scale jolted Dushanbe early Wednesday morning, at 0.35 am, according to the Dushanbe seismological station.  The tremor could be felt in some other regions of Tajikistan as well.

Reuters reported on July 20 that a powerful earthquake hit Central Asia''s densely populated Ferghana valley early on Wednesday, shaking homes and sending residents of several Uzbek and Kyrgyz cities onto the streets in panic.  According to Reuters, the U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred 17.8 kilometers underground, about 42 kilometers southwest of Ferghana, a city in the east of Uzbekistan in an area close to the border with Kyrgyzstan.  It had earlier reported the earthquake at magnitude 6.2, at a depth of 9.2 kilometers.   

Radio Liberty reported on July 20 that one day after the region was hit by a powerful earthquake; hundreds of residents of Central Asia''s Ferghana Valley have been left on the streets as they try to determine the damage wrought by this seismic event.

In Uzbekistan, according to preliminary figures provided by the country''s Emergency Situations Ministry, at least 13 people were killed and 86 injured.  Officials in Kyrgyzstan say they are still assessing the damage.  According to Radio Liberty, one activist in Uzbekistan said that at least five people were killed and over 40 people were taken to hospital in the eastern Uzbek district of Rishton alone, not far from the Kyrgyz border.

Residential and office building walls cracked in many cities and villages, although there are no reports of collapsed buildings.  Local residents, many of whom spent the night on the streets, were expressing fear of aftershocks.

Earthquakes are frequent in Central Asia, a strategic and mineral-rich region of mountain and steppe between Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and China.

In 2008, a powerful earthquake killed more than 70 people in Kyrgyzstan. In 1966, the Uzbek capital Tashkent was flattened by a 7.5 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. A 6 magnitude quake rocked Tashkent in 2008 but there was no damage.