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MAPUTO, 23 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Mozambique was hit by the most powerful earthquake in over a century soon after midnight on Thursday, causing panic and confusion and forcing many residents of the capital, Maputo, to flee their apartment buildings.

"I was on the sofa speaking on the telephone to my friend when the sitting room started shaking," said Edna Halar, a resident in a 10th floor apartment block in the heart of the city. The 21-year-old student told IRIN, "I was so confused; all sorts of ideas sped through my mind, like the arrival of Jesus Christ, witchcraft and robbers. Then as it shaking continued, I realised it was an earthquake."

At least two people died and 17 were reported injured in the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.5 and was felt as far away as neighbouring South Africa and Mozambique.

Halar was one of hundreds of people in Maputo who took to the streets. "We didn't know what to do," she said. "After a couple of hours, as nothing more was happening, I climbed up again to the 10th floor, only to put on the television and hear that we should stay outside because of the possibilities of after shocks. So I went down again with my mother until 4 a.m."

Amelia Nyhampose, a mother of four, said she was woken up by her four children at around 12.30 a.m. "They sleep on the floor, and could feel it was shaking, they told me that there was snake underneath their mats. I had no idea what it was."

The epicentre of the quake was Espungaberra, a sparsely populated rural district in central Manica province, about 130-km southwest of Mozambique's port city of Beira.

Rita Almeida of the Mozambique National Disaster Agency told IRIN earlier in the day that it was too early to be sure of the full casualty count, as "there are no communications to Espngaberra and surrounding areas".

Almeida said the quake had taken everyone by surprise. "The first I heard of it was when my telephone started ringing in the middle of the night after the quake had happened. I was not prepared, because it is not normal for Mozambique to have earthquakes."

The authorities issued a warning on Thursday afternoon on the possibility of aftershocks, and advised people to leave tall buildings and find open space to shelter.