Many residents of Algiers and other cities and towns left their apartments and houses in panic as the ground began to shake.

Electricity was down in the towns of Lakhdaria, Boudaouaou and Thenia, near Boumerdes, a city 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital.

The epicenter of the quake was located 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Zemmouri near Boumerdes, said the Algerian center for astronomy, astrophysics and geophysics.

The center said the latest quake was another aftershock of a quake which killed 2,300 people and injured more than 11,000 in the Algiers and Boumerdes area in May last year.

Zemmouri was completely devastated in that quake which reached 6.8. More than 1,000 aftershocks have been registered since.

TERRA.WIRE