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New Delhi: Strong
tremors rocked large parts of north India, including the national
capital and its adjoining areas, Tuesday evening following a
massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the Pakistan-Iran border.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The quake, which was felt in Pakistan too, killed at least 40
people in Iran.
"The epicentre of the quake was the Pakistan-Iran border and it
measured 7.8 on the Richter scale," said an official of the India
Meteorological Department.
The quake took place at 4.14 p.m. (IST) at a depth of 33 km, he
added.
The strong tremors lasted several seconds, leading to panic in
many places. People rushed out of their offices and homes in the
National Capital Region.
"I ignored the mild jolt first but after continuous jolts I
realised that it is a quake," said Malini Saxena from east Delhi's
Mayur Vihar locality.
In some areas, people could be seen standing outside their
high-rise buildings.
"I was sleeping when I felt the tremors. I got up. A puppet
hanging in the corridor of my home was shaking and the spoons were
rattling," said Anushka, who lives in a high-rise building in the
suburb of Gurgaon adjoining New Delhi.
Some saw ceiling fans in the houses shaking.
Similar reports came in from Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh.
People in the Kashmir Valley - where a devastating quake on Oct 8,
2005, had killed over 40,000 people on both sides of the Line of
Control (LOC) that divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistan
administered parts - echoed the panic.
"I ran out of my kitchen when the earthquake occurred. I found
some of our neighbours had also run out of their homes," said
Tahira, 35, a homemaker in Srinagar.
From Dubai to Hyderabad, the tremors were felt across countries.
Ask Manjula H in Hyderabad, who was skyping her sister-in-law in
Dubai at the time and suddenly felt the tremors.
"Chatting with my SIL on Skype, she in Dubai and me in Hyderabad,
suddenly tremors & could see the trembling screen #Earthquake
#Phew," Manjula tweeted.
In eastern India, tremors were felt in the morning itself. In
Odisha, a low intensity earthquake occurred at 8.36 a.m. and was
felt for a few seconds in Astaranga area of Puri district, 70 km
from the state capital Bhubaneswar, an official of the Bhubaneswar
Meteorological Centre told IANS.
Two moderate quakes had hit the northeast earlier in the morning.
The first tremor was felt at 6.53 a.m. in Assam, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
The second mild earthquake occurred around 2.04 p.m. in Dibrugarh
and Tinsukia in Assam and some areas in Arunachal Pradesh,
officials at the Regional Seismological Centre at Shillong said.
"The intensity of the first quake was 4.6 on the Richter Scale.
The second quake measured 5.0," officials said.
They added that while the epicentre of the first quake was in
Darrang district of Assam, the second one originated somewhere in
the Arunachal Pradesh-China border.
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