Small quake shakes central Switzerland

A light earthquake shook Switzerland’s central Zug region early Friday, the Swiss Seismological Service in Zurich said.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 3.3 on the open-ended Richter scale, and the epicentre was located six kilometres (3.5 miles) southeast of Zug.

The quake occurred at 1232 GMT and was clearly felt in the region, the SDA-ATS news service reported.

Zug is some 20 kilometres south of Zurich.

Earthquakes of this magnitude do not usually cause damage.

Switzerland is considered at a low to moderate risk of earthquakes. Experts believe an earthquake of magnitude 6 could be expected around once a century and a destructive powerful quake of magnitude 7 only once every 1,000 years.

The town of Basel was destroyed by a quake in 1356. More recently Sierre was rocked by a magnitude 6 quake in 1946.