Tajikistan quake damage less serious than thought

DUSHANBE — Tajik officials say that damage from a recent earthquake isn't as serious as previously thought.

An emergency agency said initially that no deaths were reported but about 20,000 people were left homeless by Saturday's quake that hit the impoverished Central Asian nation. The 5.3-magnitude quake struck the Pamir Mountains.

But emergency official Munira Nazariyeva said Monday that onsite inspections revealed that only 783 people were left homeless. She said 98 houses were completely destroyed and nearly 1,000 others damaged by the quake that hit several villages in the Gorno-Badakhshansky region.

Earlier official statements said that about 1,000 homes had been destroyed.