Earthquake in Delhi: North India, Pakistan hit by strong 6.8 magnitude quake; 6 dead, 28 injured

A powerful 6.8 magnitude quake on Richter scale rocked north India including Chandigarh, Kashmir and other areas in region — the initial tremor felt was at 4.01 pm in Delhi. The earthquake was earlier said to be of 7.1 magnitude. According to a report 3 people died due to the quake. The quake hit not just India, but also Afghanistan, Pakistan and even China. The temblor had its epicentre in the Hindukush mountain range of Afghanistan at 36.4 degrees North Latitude and 71.2 degrees East Longitude. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that earthquake epicentre was 282 kms NE off Kabul in Afghanistan. Any quake over 200 km depth has potential to wreak massive damage on surface, according to experts. Also, however, since the epicentre was in a sparsely populated area, the damage is not expected to be widespread or heavy in terms of loss of human life and destruction to property. Germany’s GFZ Research Center for Geosciences set the quake’s magnitude at 6.5 on Richter scale.

In Pakistan, in all 6 people have been killed – two people died in Buner and Swat areas of KP province, while one died in Diamer area of Gilgit-Baltistan region, an official of the National Disaster Management Authority said, and added 28 people were reported injured in the provincial capital Peshawar alone.

The entire area in North India including Kashmir, Leh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh have been shaken.

Anudeep Goraya, a college teacher in Phagwara in Punjab, said most of the people, who were taking rest since it was a Sunday, ran out of their houses after the tremors. Residents of local mohallas, including SBS Nagar Scheme No 3, also came out of their houses.

According to reports, tremors were also felt in Madhya Pradesh towns like Gwalior, Bhind, Morena and Bhopal, but did not last for long. The actual timing was 3.59 p.m. at the very spot of the quake in Hindukush.

“The earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale at a depth of 190 km hit Hindukush mountain region at 3:58 PM,” said J L Gautam, Operations Head of National Centre for Seismology in Delhi.

A precursor of the actual earthquake on Sunday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the region was shaken on Friday last by at least four distinct tremors, ranging in intensity from 3.3 to 5.3 on the Richter scale, the strongest of which was felt in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa such as Malakand and Swat.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was in Delhi Secretariat when the tremors were felt tweeted, “earthquake!!! It was really scary! I could see plants and furniture shaking at 6th floor office of Delhi secretariat. Wish all is well”.

Delhi Fire Department and police officials said control rooms have not received any calls reporting major damage or collapse of any buildings.

According to a Reuters report the earthquake was centred around Chitral in Pakistan at a depth of 210 km (130 miles). The epicenter of the earthquake was in Tectonic region called Hindukush mountain range in Afghanistan – the quake happened at 280 km depth. The quake has hit Pakistan, Afghanistan and India and China.

People in the Pakistani city of Lahore, 630 km from the epicentre, also reported they had felt the tremors. A witness in Chitral said the tremor was strong but there was no major damage visible. People across these areas rushed out of their homes in panic. Tremors were felt in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Swat Valley, Chitral, and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

The Hindukush area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan is a seismically active area, with quakes often felt across the region. Just over a decade ago, a 7.6-magnitude quake in another part of northern Pakistan killed about 75,000 people.

Delhi Metro had stopped its services due to the heavy intensity of the earthquake. The Metro authorities say that according to a pre-arranged plan, train services are stopped for 2 minutes and thereafter, when the services resume, train speed is reduced considerably. “Service were halted briefly after the quake but we resumed operations soon after,” a Delhi Metro official said.

In Mohali, near Chandigarh, where IPL 2016 match is to be played, player Aaron Finch tweeted how the event played out where he is staying. He says the hotel where he is staying has been evacuated.

In Kabul, Omar Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said officials were collecting information but no reports of casualties or damage had been received so far.

Experts say collisions between Indian, Eurasian plates may cause areas like Islamabad to rise over time. Over 100 seismic events have been recorded in the region over the past six months alone and some rocked the earth like a boat, while most of them passed unnoticed.

In October last year, over 200 people were killed as a strong earthquake jolted Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The region is roughly located on top of the meeting point for the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has termed the Hindu Kush “one of the most seismically hazardous regions on earth”. However, nearly all of the recent tremors felt in the region originated deep in the earth’s crust, nearly 200 km below the surface.

Quake hits two districts in Gujarat
Surat: A minor earthquake today struck Surat and adjoining Tapi district in South Gujarat but there was no report of any casualty or damage to property.

The tremor measuring 3.4 on the Richter Scale struck at 3:04 pm, officials of the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) here said.

Surat District Collector Rajender Kumar said the low-intensity temblor had its epicentre in Nandvi town near Surat.

“We have received reports of mild tremor with epicentre near Nandvi town. No reports of loss of life or property have been received,” he said.

The mild seismic disturbance caused panic among local residents, who rushed out of their homes.

Tapi district’s Kakrapar town, which houses a nuclear power plant, also experienced the tremor.

This is the third earthquake in the state this year with magnitude of more than three on the Richter Scale.

Bhachau town in Kutch district had experienced 3.5-magnitude quake on February 7 and again a 4-magnitude tremor on March 15, according to the data at ISR.

Tremor hits Kashmir, power outage at many places

Srinagar: An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale jolted the Valley today triggering panic among the residents and leading to power outage at many places here.

The tremor struck the Valley at around 3:59 pm as people ran out of homes for safety, officials said.

Panic-striken people rushed out of buildings for safety. The state had suffered a major temblor in 2005 which had devastated several border areas in the Valley.

Many places in the city today witnessed power outage in the aftermath of the tremor, the officials said.

There was no immediate report of any loss of lives or damage to property, they said.

Deep 6.6-magnitude quake rocks NE Afghanistan: USGS

Kabul: A 6.6-magnitude quake struck northeast Afghanistan today, the US Geological Survey said, with tremors also felt in Pakistan.

The quake at a depth of 210 kilometres (130 miles) occurred at 2:58 pm (1028 GMT), 282 km northeast of the capital Kabul.

The quake was felt for a few seconds in Kabul and in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where some residents evacuated apartment blocks after tremors shook ceiling fans and furniture.

Last October a 7.5-magnitude quake ripped across Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing almost 400 people and flattening buildings in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.

Tremors felt in parts of China due to Afghan quake

Beijing: China too experienced strong tremors when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan and Pakistan today.

Residents of Kashgar, Hotan and Kizilsu Kirgiz prefectures of southern Xinjiang, the autonomous region that borders Afghanistan felt strong tremor, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Deng Jiaping, a citizen of Kashgar, told Xinhua that the building she lives in shook for less than a minute, toppling her desktop computer and sending neighbors running out for safety.

Some railway sections in the south of Xinjiang were closed for safety checks after the quake.

Local authorities in Xinjiang are still assessing conditions in the affected regions.