6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Tajikistan, tremors felt in north India
Strong tremors jolted Delhi, the National Capital Region (NCR), Punjab, Jammu, and other regions in northern India on Friday night, as an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit Tajikistan. The epicenter was located nearly 35 km west of the city of Murghab in Tajikistan, about 500 km away from Srinagar. No loss of life was reported at the time of publishing.
Earlier, NCS pegged epicenter near Amritsar, corrected error
As per the US Geological Survey, the quake traveled large distances as it originated 92 km below the earth's surface. The initial findings of the National Centre of Seismology (NCS), which falls under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, suggested the earthquake's epicenter was near Amritsar and it originated merely 10 km below the earth's surface, enough to cause wide-spread destruction.
It struck around 10:31 pm: Official
JL Gautam, the head of operations at NCS, admitted to TOI that there had been an error in identifying the epicenter as well as the magnitude. "It took place at around 10.31 pm, following which tremors were felt through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then northern India," he said. The earthquake occurred in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, a seismically active area.
Electricity supply disrupted for a brief time in some areas
In some areas, the tremors prompted disruption in the electricity supply but it was restored after a brief time. Panicked residents, naturally, rushed out of their homes. A shopkeeper in Rajinder Nagar, Delhi, said, "At around 10:30 pm, I felt strong tremors. When I saw some people coming out of their houses in my neighborhood, I realized that it was an earthquake."
My room is 'shaking': Rahul Gandhi
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi's virtual interaction with University of Chicago students was disrupted. A Class XI student in Chandigarh, Aditya, assumed someone was pushing his chair. While people came out on the streets in Amritsar, dense fog ensured their quick return. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh tweeted last night that there had been no reports of damage in the state.
Gandhi's clip can be viewed here
Omar Abdullah grabbed blanket and ran
Meanwhile, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah revealed that he hadn't felt tremors this strong after the 2005 earthquake. "I grabbed a blanket & ran. I didn't remember to take my phone & so was unable to tweet "earthquake" while the damn ground was shaking, (sic)," his post on Twitter read. Tremors were also felt in Islamabad, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
