You're reading: Kazakhstan rocked by powerful quakes

Moscow - Three earthquakes were registered in the Almaty region in southeastern Kazakhstan on Monday evening, the country's seismologists have reported.

The first magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred 225 kilometers southeast of Almaty at 10:38 p.m. local time. Aftershocks felt in Almaty measures 4-5 points on the MSK-64 scale.

The second quake happened in the same place at 11:09 p.m. Almaty time, and the third one was registered at 11:12 p.m. local time. Its epicenter was located 232 kilometers southeast of Almaty. Its energy class is 10.9 and its magnitude is MPV 4.7.

At least three aftershocks were registered in the Almaty region last night.

The Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry is working to establish whether the earthquakes caused any damage in the region.

“Yesterday we started to work in Kegen and Narynkolu – the villages in the epicenter of the earthquakes. The first 4-5 magnitude aftershock was felt in Almaty. It did not cause any damage or disruption to Almaty’s services. The preliminary information available indicates the absence of any serious damage in Kegen as well,” Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Bozhko told journalists on the sidelines of a government session in Astana on Tuesday.

Specialists of the Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Ministry are working in districts in the north of the country that could have been affected by the earthquakes in neighboring Kazakhstan.

A preliminary examination confirms that the earthquakes did not lead to any fatalities and damage in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul region, a ministry spokesman told Interfax.