A weekend earthquake killed at least 70 people in Kyrgyzstan, the emergencies ministry said today.
The earthquake, measuring 6.3 according to the US Geological Survey, jolted an area between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - Central Asia's most densely populated corner prone to instability and ethnic tension.
"The death toll might be higher," said an emergencies ministry spokesman in the regional centre of Osh.
The spokesman said another 50 people were injured and at least 128 houses in the high-altitude village of Nura on Kyrgyzstan's border with China had been destroyed.
He said the emergencies ministry and the military were sending more rescue teams and doctors to the village, which has a population of just under 1,000.
The Kyrgyz emergencies ministry originally said it had no information of major destruction or casualties.
Earthquakes are frequent in Central Asia, a region wedged between Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and China.
In 1966, the Uzbek capital Tashkent was flattened by a 7.5 earthquake when hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless. A 6.0 magnitude quake rocked Tashkent this August but there was no damage.