6.3 magnitude quake in Tajikistan: Tremors felt in Delhi, parts of north India

A high-intensity earthquake hit Tajikistan on Friday night, causing tremor in Delhi-NCR and several other parts of north India.

The seismology department at first erroneously gave the epicentre as Amritsar and put the quake’s depth at 19km. It later sent a revised statement to confirm the quake was in Tajikistan. It ascribed the error to a software mistake.

According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the magnitude of the quake was 6.3.

The tremors created panic among people who rushed out of their homes. However, there were no immediate reports of any loss of life or damage to property.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was virtually interacting with students of the University of Chicago, was heard saying that his entire room was “shaking”.

National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said the tremors reminded the people of the 2005 quake in Jammu and Kashmir.

“No reports of any damage so far in Amritsar or other parts of Punjab following the earthquake. Top officials of Punjab Police and local administration are keeping a close watch on the situation. Praying for everyone’s safety,” Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said in a tweet.

Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Khaira said all his officers are on their toes and police PCR vehicles are moving in the city. Police Commissioner of Amritsar Sukchain Singh Gill said everything was normal at the Golden Temple too and volunteers were doing sewa as usual.

J.L. Gautam, Operations Head of the NCS, said the “epicentre of the earthquake is Tajikistan. Our preliminary findings said the epicentre was Amritsar. We have now revised the epicentre”.

The NCS had also said there were two quakes, the Tajikistan one occurred at 10:31PM while the Amritsar quake happened at 10:34PM.

The Himalayan and the Hindukush mountain ranges are prone to quakes and many a time its tremors can be felt across the Indo-Gangetic belt.India,News