© AlamyBucharest, Romania.
The tremor, which lasted for several seconds, occurred at 3:38 am Sunday, local time, in the eastern quake-prone region of Vrancea at a depth of 150 kilometres, Romania's National Earth Physics Institute said.
The quake woke residents in the capital, Bucharest, and elsewhere. Bucharest Ambulance Service spokeswoman Alice Grasu said a dozen or so residents telephoned immediately after the quake suffering from panic attacks.
Electricity was temporarily down in an area near the epicentre northeast of Bucharest. There were reports of pictures and plaster falling off walls in the capital.
Seismologists said that no aftershocks are expected.
Comment: USGS reports there has been elevated activity in the area following an unusually strong M6.8 quake in Greece just a few days ago, and in the last 24 hours there's been at least 8 notable events; an M4.7 quake in Greece, with multiple aftershocks, and another in Georgia at M4.1. Elsewhere on the planet, seismic and volcanic activity has also been rather high: