According to the Armenian seismic protection agency, the epicenter of the earthquake was at a section of the Armenian-Georgian border about 40 kilometers north of Gyumri. Tremors were felt in Yerevan and six of Armenia’s ten provinces as well as Tbilisi and southern Georgia.
The quake did not kill or injure anyone. The Armenian Ministry of Emergencies reported minor damage caused to buildings in Yerevan, Gyumri and three other towns.
Many Gyumri residents rushed out of their homes immediate after the quake, which knocked out power supplies in one of the city’s districts. The supplies were restored about 90 minutes later.
“Residents can return to their homes,” the Ministry of Emergencies said in a late-night statement. It urged them not to “succumb to panic,” saying that they should only expect weaker aftershocks.
The ministry’s seismic protection service recorded 165 aftershocks by Monday morning. A senior official from the service, Sos Margarian, described the earthquake as “moderately powerful.”
“It’s probably the strongest since the Spitak earthquake,” Margarian said, referring to 1988 calamity that killed more than 25,000 people and devastated much of northwestern Armenia, including Gyumri.
The latest tremors came one year after two quakes measuring at magnitude 4.7 in their epicenters jolted some Armenian regions in the space of one week. The authorities urged residents of Yerevan and surrounding communities at the time to stay outdoors for several hours.