ZAGREB (REUTERS) – An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck a town in central Croatia on Tuesday (Dec 29), killing a child, injuring many people and wrecking houses, officials said.

Rescuers tried to pull people from the rubble of collapsed buildings, television footage showed, and army troops were sent in to help.

The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said the quake hit at a depth of 10km. The epicentre was in the town of Petrinja, 50km south of the Croatian capital Zagreb.

Dr Tomislav Fabijanic, head of emergency medical services in nearby Sisak, said many people had been injured in Petrinja and in Sisak.

“There are fractures, there are concussions and some had to be operated on,” he said.

Prime Minister Adrej Plenkovic, who rushed to Petrinja, said: “We have information that one girl was killed. We have no other information on casualties.

“The army is here to help. We will have to move some people from Petrinja because it is unsafe to be here.”

N1 news channel quoted a Petrinja town official as saying that a 12-year-old child had been killed, but gave no details.

It showed footage of rescuers in Petrinja pulling a man and a child from the debris. Both were alive.

Other footage showed a house with a roof caved in. The reporter said she did not know if anyone was inside.

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N1 also said a kindergarten was destroyed in the quake but there had been no children in it. The situation was “difficult” in retirement homes in the Petrinja area, it added.

A worker who had been fixing a roof in a village outside Petrinja told N1 that the quake threw him on the ground. Nine of the 10 houses in the village were destroyed, he said.

The quake could also be felt in Zagreb, where people rushed onto the streets, some of which were strewn with broken roof tiles and other debris. It was also felt in neighbouring Bosnia and Serbia.

In neighbouring Slovenia, the STA news agency said the country’s sole nuclear power plant, which is 100km from the epicentre, was shut down as a precaution.

Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant said in a statement it had not shut down production although the earthquake had been felt there.

On Monday a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit central Croatia, also near Petrinja. In March, an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 hit Zagreb causing one death and injuring 27 people.

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