Tremor alert in west Afghanistan leaves locals out in the cold

KABUL (AFP) Jan 11, 2004
Tens of thousands of residents of the western Afghan city of Herat spent the night in freezing conditions outside their homes because of an unofficial earthquake alert, a local security source said Sunday.

According to the announcements by mosques in Herat, the country's principal city in the west, the tremor was due to hit sometime in the night, a spokesman for the province's military division, Gholam Mohammed Massoon told AFP. At daybreak, life continued normally, locals contacted by AFP said.

Herat is about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the border with Iran. On December 26 the Iranian city of Bam in the southeast of the country was devastated by a quake measuring more than six points on the Richter scale, killing between 30,000 and 35,000 people.

TERRA.WIRE