At least four people were killed in Albania early on Tuesday in the strongest earthquake that rocked the capital Tirana and the surrounding area in decades, also collapsing buildings and trapping some residents in the rubble.

The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale and occurred just before 4 am local time, the second strong earthquake to shake the region in two months.

The quake's epicenter was 30 kilometers west of Tirana and at a depth of 10 kilometers, the agency said.

A defense ministry spokeswoman said the bodies of two women had been found in the rubble of an apartment building in the northern village of Thomani. A man in Corbin died of panic and jumped from a building.

Another body was recovered from the rubble of a collapsed building in Durres.

The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense told reporters that the firefighters and members of the army "help residents trapped under the rubble" in Durres and Thomani.

Two government spokesmen said buildings in Durres were the hardest hit, and few people were taken to a hospital in Tirana.

Albania, located on the Adriatic Sea and the Ionian Sea between Greece and Montenegro, is experiencing frequent seismic activities.