More than 80 aftershocks, one registering 5.9 on the Richter scale, kept Romanians' nerves on edge Thursday as authorities surveyed the damage from the region's worst earthquake in 13 years.
A powerful jolt at 3:18 a.m. shook millions of people from their sleep and severely damaged a number of buildings that survived the initial quake nearly 14 hours earlier, authorities said.At least 12 people were killed and 480 injured in Romania, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union in the Wednesday afternoon temblor, which registered between 6.5 and 7.5 the Richter scale. The epicenter was in Romania, but it was felt as far away as Leningrad and Istanbul.
The official Rompres new agency said the aftershock, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, severely damaged the city hall, a theater, a medical clinic and an apartment building in the city of Foscani.
The Soviet news agency Tass said the aftershock was felt in Soviet Moldavia, where three people reportedly were killed and 180 others injured on Wednesday. Of the three dead, one man died when he jumped in panic from a second-story window, and two elderly died of heart attacks resulting from the quake, Tass said.
Eight of the dead from Wednesday's quake were killed in Romania, including one Bucharest resident crushed by a falling chimney and another who died when a ceiling collapsed.
The Bulgarian News Agency said a woman had a heart attack during the initial quake and died in a Bulgarian town near the Romanian border, and that 38 people were injured.
Hospital officials in Bucharest said at least 90 people were hurt in the Romanian capital alone, and more casualties were streaming in.