Earthquake rattles Spain, Portugal

LISBON: An earthquake struck parts of Portugal and Spain on Monday causing no injuries or damage but prompting hundreds of people to evacuate buildings in both countries.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale, was centred in the Atlantic some 160 kilometres southwest of the Cape Saint Vincent in Portugal's southernmost province of Algarve, the national weather office's seismology department said.

It was felt in Lisbon and Madrid as well as in Morocco's main cities including Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh.

Students at a high school in Faro, the capital of the Algarve, hid under their desks before evacuating the building, the Lusa news agency reported.

Several other schools in the south of Portugal were also evacuated as were buildings in the Spanish cities of Seville, Salamanca, Madrid and Zamora, local media reported.

Scores of calls were made to the emergency services in Portugal and Spain.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Richter scale is classified as "strong" by the US Geological Survey which monitors seismological activity around the globe.