Overview
- A shallow earthquake struck roughly 40 kilometres north of Suez early on Monday and was measured between about magnitude 5.0 and 5.6 by different agencies.
- The quake’s shallow 10 km focus allowed shaking to travel far, waking residents across Cairo, the Nile Delta, Alexandria and Port Said and producing felt reports from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Lebanon.
- Egypt’s health ministry and the Egyptian Red Crescent activated emergency plans and raised hospital and ambulance readiness after Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar ordered a countrywide response.
- Authorities and seismologists reported no immediate casualties or major damage and cautioned that older or damaged buildings remain the greatest local risk as they monitor for aftershocks.
- Northeastern Egypt sits near active faults around the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea, a seismic setting that makes even moderate shallow quakes widely felt and keeps officials focused on structural checks and short-term monitoring.