Moscow - At least 12 people were killed in an earthquake in Russia's North Caucasus region on Saturday, Russian television reported, quoting health officials. A man, killed when a wall collapsed in Chechnya, and a child, was among the victims, the Interfax news agency reported, quoting Chechen officials.
More than 100 people were injured in the quake. Many people in the capital fled their homes in fright.
Authorities said the quake had a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale.
The officials said at least 500 buildings in the Chechen capital Grozny and other cities were damaged, Interfax reported.
A hospital in the city of Shali was also partially destroyed.
Chechen President Ramsan Kadyrov on Saturday told parliament that parliamentary elections, scheduled for Sunday, would go ahead despite the quake.
The quake came a little less than a week after a stronger earthquake in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, near the Chinese and Tajik borders, claimed 70 lives.
