Ordray has offered field hospitals to both republics, as has Sennmark.

The Ketterand plateau sits along one of the most restless fault systems on the continent.

A tremor in 1974 killed more than 8,400 people in the western districts, while in 1938 some 21,000 died around the inland lakes.

(Additional reporting by Halvard Nesse and Petra Öhlin in Ordray)