DUSHANBE, October 7, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev yesterday signed a decree declaring a day of national mourning on October 7 for the 74 victims of a deadly earthquake that hit the southeast of Kyrgyzstan Sunday night. 

According Kyrgyz media, the head of state has left for the quake-hit area to familiarize himself with the situation there.  The fund to provide assistance to tremor-hit population is working in the country.

            An aircraft of the Russian Ministry of emergency Situations with humanitarian aid on board landed at the Osh airport yesterday.  The assistance included heated tents, blankets, heaters and medicines.     

Tajikistan has also promised to deliver humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan.  Thus, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service quoted Muzaffar Usmonov, a spokesman for the Tajik Committee for Emergency Situations (CES), as saying, "According to the agreement on emergency situations signed by member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organizations (CSTO), we will directly help those people of Kyrgyzstan who are suffering."  According to him, the CES is currently discussing the situation in Kyrgyzstan and appointing people who will be responsible for aid.  “We will give as much as we can," Usmonov said.  

            According to the last data, 74 residents of the village of Noura in the Alay district of the Osh region were killed by the earthquake, the Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reported referring to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency Situations.  41 of the dead are reported to be children.  110 other residents of Noura were taken to hospitals in Osh and 13 injured persons are in the central district hospital in Alay.

Search-and-rescue operation at the quake site is going on.  

The Kyrgyz government has decided to allocate 35 million som (equivalent to some 1 million US dollars) that will be distributed to the Noura residents that have been left homeless.  Besides, further 2 million som will be allocated from presidential and premier’s reserve funds for families of the quake victims.

In the meantime, seismologists say that tremors may repeat. 

According to radio Liberty, the U.S. Geological Survey reported two quakes in southern Kyrgyzstan, the first late on October 5, the second early on October 6.  The Geological Survey said the quakes measured 6.6 and 5.1 in magnitude, respectively, and hit in the same area -- around 60 kilometers east of Sary-Tash, Kyrgyzstan, and 50 kilometers east of Karakul, Tajikistan.