Strong Quake Hits Caucasus; Teen-Ager Dies

TBILISI, Georgia — A powerful earthquake rocked Georgia, southern Russia and Armenia early Saturday, killing at least one person and destroying dozens of homes in the sparsely populated Caucasus Mountains.

The 6.7 magnitude quake shook high-rises in the capital of Tbilisi, waking residents and prompting many to run outside in panic.

“I woke up and thought thieves were breaking into the house; I couldn’t tell what was happening,” said a Tbilisi resident who lives in a fourth-floor apartment.

The epicenter was near the town of Barisakho, 55 miles northeast of Tbilisi, Georgian officials said.

A 15-year-old boy was killed in Barisakho, Interior Ministry spokesman Valiko Gogolashvili said. Many others in the town were injured, and several dozen homes destroyed, Gogolashvili said.

No other casualties or serious damage was reported by late Saturday, but communications with Barisakho and the surrounding area were cut, said government spokesman Vakhtang Kobaidze.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin sent a message to Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze expressing “deepest sorrow” and condolences to the families of those injured, Russian Television said.

Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency said tremors were felt as far away as Yerevan, the capital of neighboring Armenia and about 155 miles south of the epicenter.

In December, 1988, more than 25,000 people were killed in Armenia in one of the worst earthquakes to hit the region in modern times.