An earthquake in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan has destroyed hundreds of homes, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter in the dead of winter.
"According to preliminary information, 300 houses have been destroyed," a regional spokesman for the country's Civil Defence Committee responsible for the affected area told AFP on Sunday.
About 10,000 people have been left without shelter as scores of other homes have been damaged, the spokesman said, citing preliminary information.
Two schools, a clinic and a power line have also been destroyed, he added.
The spokesman reported no deaths but said dozens of sheep and goats were killed in the earthquake that struck around ten high-altitude villages in the Pamir mountains in eastern Tajikistan on Saturday.
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The US Geological Survey reported that a 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck 235km east of the Tajik capital Dushanbe at 07:15am (1315 AEDT) on Saturday.
It had a depth of 44.5km, the survey said. Authorities said they're assessing damages, but their work is complicated by the location of the destroyed villages. More than 25,000 people live in the affected area, the Vanj district.
The deputy head of the district, Azimjon Shamsiddinov, told AFP preliminary damage estimates are up to $US1.5 million ($A1.68 million), a hefty amount for the impoverished ex-Soviet nation.
Some residents in the Vanj district said they're afraid there could be another quake in the coming days.
"We live as if we were on a volcano," a local resident, Nazarbek Shodiyenov, 39, told AFP by phone. "We feel constantly scared that an earthquake will strike again.
We are scared to sleep at night. "There is a feeling that the earth is constantly moving under feet."
A government commission including seismologists and geologists is expected to arrive in the Vanj district on Monday morning, a senior official with the Civil Defence Committee said.
Earthquakes are relatively frequent in Tajikistan, which is located in Central Asia and borders war-torn Afghanistan.
