A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Tajikistan today, near the border with China, the American Seismological Institute USGS announced.

The earthquake was recorded at 05:37 (local time; 02:37 Greek time), at a focal depth of 20.5 kilometers, according to the same source.

The USGS estimated that “minimal residents” of the area — possibly even “none” — would be at risk from landslides.

According to the American institute, the epicenter of the earthquake was in Gorno Badakhshan, a semi-autonomous region that borders China and Afghanistan.

About twenty minutes after the initial earthquake, a second one of magnitude 5 was recorded.

The sparsely populated area where the epicenter was located is surrounded by the imposing Pamir Mountains.

Earlier, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported that the main quake had a magnitude of 7.3, placing its epicenter near the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region’s border with Tajikistan.

For its part, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) spoke of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, however, a little later it revised downwards – to 6.1 – its estimate of its strength.