The magnitude 5.0 quake was at 11:23 p.m. (1823GMT), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was 30 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Namangan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, 220 kilometers (135 miles) east of Tashkent, the USGS said.

Residents preparing to ring in the New Year felt the tremors. There was no official statement from the government in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic, and there were no reports of damage or casualties.

Earthquakes are fairly common in the mountains of the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which lie north of Afghanistan. A 1966 earthquake destroyed much of Tashkent.