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No serious damaged caused by earthquake in Russia’s Amur region

Damage is being established

MOSCOW, October 14 (Itar-Tass) — Friday’s earthquake in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur region has not hampered railway traffic along the Trans-Baikal railway, a source in Russian Railways Co (RZD) told Itar-Tass.

According to the source, specialists keep a close eye on the state of infrastructure facilities. Thus, several contact line masts have been damaged at the Bamovskaya-Kovali section but the track and the contact line itself are intact, the source noted.

The source also said that railway traffic was suspended only for 58 minutes for safety reasons. One train was delayed. By now, the source stressed, traffic proceeds as scheduled.

A spokesman for the Trans-Baikal emergencies administration told Itar-Tass that the Amur quake has not damaged electric power facilities in the Trans-Baikal territory although earth tremors measuring from 1.5 to four points on the Richter scale were felt in some of the districts. The Bureiskaya and Zeiskaya hydropower plants are operating in a regular regime.

In the mean time, spokesman for Russia’s oil major Transneft Igor Demin told Itar-Tass that when the earthquake was registered oil pimping was automatically suspended along the West Siberia-Pacific pipeline to China. According to Demin, as soon as the Russian emergencies ministry warns of possible further earth tremors in the area, the company’s chief engineer says it is too early to resume oil pumping.

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit Russia’s Far Eastern Amur region on Friday. The focus of the earthquake was located 760 kilometers north-west of the settlement of Talakan and some 25 kilometers west of the settlement of Skovorodino.

Earth tremors were felt in settlement in five districts of the Amur region and in the city of Blagoveshchensk. “All vital facilities are functioning in a regular mode, traffic has not been suspended,” the spokesman for the regional emergencies centre said.

Damage is being established.

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