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Bishkek: An earthquake in southern Kyrgyzstan has killed 72 people and destroyed dozens of houses, the emergencies ministry said on Monday.
The quake late on Sunday, which measured magnitude 6.6 according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), razed the village of Nura in the isolated Alaisky district, high in the Tian Shan mountain range.
"Right now the number of dead is 72," Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Turatbek Dzhunuchaliyev said in a press conference.
He added that more than 60 people needed urgent hospitalisation and 128 houses had been ruined in the quake, which was felt throughout Central Asia late on Sunday.
"We are continuing rescue operations to see if anyone may be still buried under the debris," said an emergencies ministry spokesman from the regional centre of Osh.
Victims were being ferried by helicopter from Nura to the main regional city of Osh, 220 km away.
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