One Dead As Earthquake Rocks the Caribbean

A strong earthquake struck the eastern Caribbean yesterday, damaging buildings on several islands and killing at least one person.

France's overseas minister, Christian Estrosi, told French television that about one hundred people on the French island of Martinique had required medical treatment for minor injuries. Six people were injured when they jumped through windows, including one in serious condition, according to local officials. A woman died at an old people's home after suffering a heart attack during the quake, which measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, officials told the news agency AFP.

Estrosi earlier said a British man had died from heart failure on the island during the quake, but local officials said this happened before it struck.

The epicenter of the earthquake was 14 miles (23km) northwest of Martinique's coastline. More than 31,000 people on the island were without electricity last night, said local officials.

"My house shook so hard I thought it was going to fall," said a caller to Radio Martinique. "The door, the windows, everything shook."

Buildings also collapsed in Barbados where a woman was trampled as workers fled an office building in the capital, Bridgetown. She is in hospital in a stable condition. Another woman broke her leg while trying to rush out of her home, according to a police report.

The quake, which struck at 2pm EST (1900 GMT), also slightly damaged some homes and water pipes in St Lucia, St Vincent and other nearby islands.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said the depth of the quake, at 90 miles (145km), was too deep to generate a destructive tsunami.

"I wouldn't expect major damage because the quake has some depth," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado.

Scientists at the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad said the quake was the second strongest since the unit began monitoring the Caribbean tectonic plate in 1952