© APDamaged cars outside the Faculty of Geology building at the University of Tirana after an earthquake on Saturday.
Albania was rattled by its strongest earthquake in decades Saturday, officials said, sending people fleeing into the streets in several cities, damaging buildings and triggering power cuts in the capital.
The epicenter of the shallow 5.6 magnitude quake, was near Durres, less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital, Tirana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Albania's defense ministry said it was the
"strongest earthquake in the country in the last 20 to 30 years.""There are no deaths," defense ministry spokeswoman Albana Qajaj said.
Some 80 people sought medical help in both Tirana and Durres, 21 of whom were hospitalized due to injuries caused by falling objects or parts of walls as well as for panic attacks, Health Minister Ogerta Manasterilu said.
Qajaj said that houses and buildings in Tirana had been damaged but were still standing and that the ministry was accessing damage in other towns and villages.
Authorities later said the quake had damaged about 600 homes and knocked out power and water facilities in Tirana, Durres and some other western and central districts.
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