Siberian city of Irkutsk reeling from EARTHQUAKE as 5.5-magnitude tremor strikes near iconic Lake Baikal (VIDEO)

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday near the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal, shaking the buildings in Siberia’s fifth-largest city, and sending alarmed and fearful locals into a social media frenzy.

The quake hit at 18:04 UTC (02:04 local time), with the epicenter located at a depth of around 2,000 meters some 83 km south-west of Irkutsk, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. It’s the main city of the Irkutsk Region, with a population of more than 600,000 people.

Numerous people were woken up in the middle of the night by the tremors and went online, describing how the walls in their homes were shaking for around half a minute. Some of them made videos in the dark, sharing their shock about what had just happened. 

Irkutsk resident Albert, who spoke with RT, said he felt a “strong rumbling” and his home was “shaken quite hard.” Some five or six minutes later, there was an aftershock, but it was less powerful. “The whole city is awake now. It’s scary. We fear more aftershocks,” he said.

Earthquakes are common in this region, but “we haven’t had such strong tremors for at least nine years,” the man added.

A local gamer, who was live-streaming his session when the quake struck, managed to film his reaction to the event. The guy first screams in fear as walls behind him start shaking and then tells his viewers: “I have an earthquake here.”

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