SEVERAL PEOPLE INJURED IN EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTHERN CROATIA, B-H

DUBROVNIK, Sept 6 (Hina) - One person was lightly injured in a severe earthquake that struck the southern Croatian Adriatic coast late Thursday night. A seventeen-year-old girl of Slano was taken to hospital in Dubrovnik, civil defence officials in the town said on Friday. The epicentre of the quake, which measured 6 points on the Richter scale, was halfway between the towns of Ston and Slano, about 30 km northwest of Dubrovnik. Civil defence officials said that the quake had done extensive damage to residential buildings in Ston, Slano and nearby villages. In Ston, the town hall and the rectory were badly damaged and all residential buildings were no longer safe for living. The residents of Slano and other quake-affected villages will be evacuated to temporary shelters later in the day. Croatian Army Civil Defence units are clearing the area. Ston, Mali Ston and Oslje are without electric power. The quake did not cause any major damage to Dubrovnik. The tremor was also felt in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. The worst hit was the Ravno area, about 10 km northeast of the epicentre, where several people were lightly injured, dozens of houses devastated and at least ten head of cattle killed, local authorities said. The recently rebuilt parish church, the primary school building and the post office were substantially damaged, roads were covered with landslides and telephone lines were down, Ravno mayor Dragan Vukic said. Most people spent the night in the open air and their plight was worsened by rain, he added. Croatian seismological services say that earthquakes of this magnitude happen statistically every ten years in the Dinara mountain range, which has the highest incidence of earthquakes in the country. The last one was recorded in the Knin area in 1986. According to historical records, the most devastating earthquake struck in 1667 when all houses in Dubrovnik were destroyed. (hina) vm jn 061412 MET sep 96