Earthquakes kill 39, injure nearly 700 in Rwanda, Congo

(CNN) -- Rescuers raced to provide assistance Monday after an earthquake killed at least 39 people and injured 669 in central Africa, according to the Red Cross.

The quake caused a church to collapse while people were praying, destroyed a school and caused so much damage to a hospital that doctors were treating victims in the hospital's garden, the Red Cross said.

The earthquake affected people in parts of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo known as the Great Lakes region, said Jean-Luc Martinage, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva.

Communities in Rwanda seemed to be hardest hit.

The quake killed 33, injured 399 and destroyed at least 230 houses in that country, said Yvonne Kabagire, information officer for the Rwandan Red Cross. It caused such damage to Bushenge Hospital, in the Nyamasheke district, that doctors and nurses tended to patients Monday in the hospital's garden because they lacked space inside, she said.

The 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck at 1:37 p.m. on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In Congo, the earthquake killed at least six people and wounded 230 others, Martinage said. A school in the city of Kabare was destroyed, and church collapsed in Bukavu as people were praying inside, causing several injuries, Martinage said. E-mail to a friend

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