A total of 23 aftershocks has shaken Bulgaria's capital during the weekend following the major earthquake on Saturday evening, authorities reported.

"The aftershocks' magnitudes did not measure more than 2 on the Richter scale," said Monday Nikolay Miloshev, director of the Geophysics Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

According to data released by the institute, the aftershocks could continue for up to three weeks as the epicenter of the first tremor was in the Vitosha fault.

The quakes in Sofia and the experts' possibility to define their epicenters and magnitudes was the topic of a press conference given by the Geophysics Institute on Monday.

The relatively strong 4-magnitude tremor with three consecutive vertical shocks was felt on Saturday evening, around 10:08 pm everywhere in the Bulgarian capital city.

The earthquake had a very short duration of 2,3 seconds, but was enough to send many people out on the streets.

Minutes after the shock there were interruptions in the landline phones as well as in the service of some mobile operators. There were no reported interruptions in the electricity and water supply.

The shocks were felt the strongest on the highest floors of apartment buildings and in the southern districts of the capital.

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