A devastating 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Albania early Tuesday morning, followed by dozens of aftershocks. The capital of the country of Tirana and the second largest city of Durres suffered more than others, buildings collapsed there. The epicenter was located between these cities.

The next night, the inhabitants of Durres spent in cars and tents at the football stadium.. On Thursday, another earthquake occurred 48 kilometers from Tirana, this time the town of Dracha shook, the epicenter was only 25 kilometers from it at a depth of two kilometers. Magnitude was 5.1 on the Richter scale.. Rescuers from Greece, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, France, Montenegro and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo urgently went to affected Albania. In terms of the scale of the destruction, it was clear that there would be many victims.. Thousands of people lost their homes.

The exact number of deaths at first no one could even name. It grew as parsing debris. To date, it is known about 49 dead, and almost two thousand injured. Rescue operation ends.

Prime Minister Edy Rama said city residents were advised to leave their tents and move to hotels. Civil organizations and societies raised $ 4.5 million (about 288 million rubles) to help the victims, and businessmen Behjet Pacolli and Shefchet Castrati donated € 2.5 million (about 176 million rubles). Thousands of people left homeless. The government declared mourning in the country, an emergency mode was introduced in the affected cities, the celebrations on the occasion of National Flag Day were canceled.