Some 20,000 people were left homeless by an earthquake which hit Tajikistan's mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan province, a local administration spokesman has said.
The earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale took place on Saturday and affected two locations in the province's Vanchsky district, in Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, the spokesman said.
"Several dozens houses inhabited by some 20,000 people have been destroyed completely or partly," he said.
Rock falls and mudslides caused by the quake blocked a road linking the Vanchsky district with the province's administrative center of Khorog, he added.
DUSHANBE, January 3 (RIA Novosti)
