nura village, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan mourns its earthquake victims

The epicentre of last week’s quake was Nura, a remote village in one of the poorest countries in the world.

More than three thousand metres above sea level, it is in a seismically unstable area. But no one could predict what happened at 9.50 p.m. on October 5.

Officials were still counting up the votes in the village election, and most adults were outside, waiting for the results.

That's when the quake hit. A vertical shock measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale. Electricity went off. Most of the houses, built by their owners, collapsed.

A scene of devastation greeted the first border guards to reach the village.

“The people were walking around like zombies,” said Djanabek Djakypov, a Border Forces Officer. “They hadn't realised what happened to them. We worked in the dark. By the morning we managed to get 90 percent of those underneath the rubble out.”

Most of the 75 dead were in bed at the time of the quake - more than half of the victims were small children.

For the villagers, there is plenty of food, though the choice of ingredients depends on what other countries have sent as humanitarian aid.

Many have returned from the tent camp, and sleep in the ruins of their homes.

The villagers still have to wash their clothes in the river and there is no electricity.

The bustle makes Nura appear alive again. But a return to normality is some way off.

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