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Last Updated: Thursday, 29 November
2007, 21:52 GMT

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Strong earthquake hits Martinique

The quake's epicentre was 40km from
Fort-de-France, Martinique

A
strong earthquake measuring 7.4 magnitude has hit near the island of
Martinique in the eastern Caribbean, the US Geological Survey has
said.

The earthquake struck at 1500 (1900 GMT) off the north-west coast
of Martinique at a depth of 145.4 kilometres (90.4 miles).

No casualties have been reported and no major tsunami warning has
been given.

There have been unconfirmed reports that some buildings have
collapsed in Martinique's capital, Fort-de-France.

The earthquake was centred 40km (25 miles) north-west of
Fort-de-France, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

'Everything shook'

"For the moment, a building and a bank have collapsed. There is
panic, but we do not know if there are casualties," a police source
in Fort-de-France told the French news agency AFP.

Callers to Radio Martinique described their fear as the quake
struck.

"My house shook so hard I thought it was going to fall. The door,
the windows, everything shook," the Associated Press reported one
caller as saying.

"I wouldn't expect
major damage because the quake has some depth," Don Blakeman, a
geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in
Golden, Colorado told AP.

There were also reports that the islands of Guadeloupe and
Dominica had felt the quake strongly.

Residents on islands further across the eastern Caribbean - as
far away as Puerto Rico to the north and Trinidad and Tobago to the
south - told the USGS that they had felt the quake.

The tremor was also felt hundreds of miles away in South America.

In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, 500 miles (800km) from the
epicentre, some people evacuated office buildings, Reuters news
agency reported.

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SEE ALSO

Deadly
history of earthquakes
16 Aug
07 |  Special Reports

How
earthquakes happen
22 Feb 05 |
Science/Nature

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