MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The epicenter was located 19 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the city of Lakhdaria, and 56 kilometers southeast of the Algerian capital, Algiers, the USGS said. The center lies at a depth of 7.5 miles.
No information on either people's injuries or damage was immediately available. No tsunami threat was reported.
The Mediterranean region, to which Algeria belongs, has been seismically active for decades, with a number of earthquakes having resulted in tsunamis.