Washington: A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the east of the Central Asian country of Tajikistan on Monday, US experts said.

The tremor hit at 7:50 GMT some 109 kilometers (67 miles) west of the town of Murghob at a depth of 28 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicenter was located in a remote area some 345 kilometers east of the capital Dushanbe, it added.

An AFP reporter in Dushanbe said small tremors were felt in the city.

The quake was also felt in the capital of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan to the north, northern parts of Afghanistan to the south as well as nearby Pakistan and India, but no damage was immediately reported.

‘I felt the windows moving and that only happens when there’s an earthquake. The room was swinging,’ said Sara Seerat, a lawyer in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where workers voluntarily evacuated office buildings.

Indian television showed residents in Delhi and Srinagar rushing into the streets.