Strong earthquake shakes northern Tanzania

updated 12:47 a.m. ET July 18, 2007

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - A strong earthquake shook northern Tanzania on Tuesday, one in a series in recent days in the region, officials said. No casualties were immediately reported.

In the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, the building housing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was evacuated for some time, said Danford Mpumilwa, the tribunal’s spokesman.

The quake was felt more than 60 miles away in the capital of neighboring Kenya, where high rise buildings shook as did coffee tables and chandeliers in people’s homes.

The National Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geological Survey gave the quake a preliminary reading of 6.0 on the Richter scale. Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst with the center, said in a telephone interview he was still analyzing the activity.

“This is the seventh earthquake that is above 4.4,” since Thursday, Blakeman said. “This last one is pretty large, I would expect some more in the coming days, weeks, months but we cannot predict when.”

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