A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Almaty region in southern Kazakhstan early on Sunday, the official spokesman for the Kazakh interior ministry’s emergency situations committee told reporters.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

"At 05:07 [local time, 02:07 Moscow time] on August 18, an earthquake was registered with an epicenter northeast of the city of Almaty on the territory of Kazakhstan," Nursultan Nurakhmetov said. "The magnitude was 5.4"

The epicenter was located at the depth of 5 kilometers, he said.

"The intensity of the earthquake, as measured under the MSK-64 scale [The Medvedev-Sponheuer-Karnik scale of macroseismic intensity] is as follows: Zharkent - five points, city of Taldykorgan - 2-3 points, the settlement of Saty - 2-3 points," the spokesman added. "As of 07:00 local time (04:00 Moscow time), there were no reports about casualties or damage.".