Article: Fears for historical buildings as 5.6 earthquake rocked Venezuelan Caribbean region at 2.49 a.m. this Monday morning

An earthquake registering 5.6 on the Richter scale was reported at 2:49 a.m. this in the morning (Monday) with an epicenter some 8 kilometers northwest of Cumana in eastern Sucre State, on Venezuela's Caribbean coast and west of Trindidad & Tobago. No fatalities or injuries have been reported although some damage to houses has been reported. The Venezuelan Seismological Research bureau, Funvisis, says the quake was recorded at sea at a depth of 4.7 kilometers with a "single mirror " of 3.0 Richter some 16 kilometers north of Cumana.

Sucre State Governor Ramon Martinez says the earthquake was located locally at Punta Arenas and could not have lasted for more than 25 seconds. He says officials are assessing damage to houses and buildings, but stresses that there are no reports of people injured or loss of life. In a 5.00 a.m. interview on national radio he said "at this moment we all taking measures and the army and police are patrolling the streets to providing security.

The earthquake was also felt across the region with reports from Guanta, in nearby Anzoategui state, and on the Caribbean holiday island of Margarita as well as several municipalities including Cariaco which was at the epicenter of a very damaging quake several years ago.

The State Governor said that there have been some suggestions that there could have been damage to some historical Spanish Conquest buildings in the center of Cumana and that "two or three buildings are being evaluated to see if there is structural damage."