Kyrgyzstan: UN rushes in help after deadly quake rocks region

6 October 2008 – United Nations humanitarian agencies are dispatching aid and staff to southern Kyrgyzstan, where dozens of people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed after an earthquake struck the remote, mountainous region last night. At least 60 people died when the quake, which measured 6.6 on the Richter scale and was recorded as being about 27 kilometres below the surface, struck close to Nura, a village near the Kyrgyz border with China. UN spokesperson Michele Montas told journalists today that preliminary data indicates another 60 people in Nura need urgent evacuation and medical aid, and about 70 per cent of the village’s entire infrastructure has been destroyed. A tent camp for 600... [read full story]