Tremors felt in Delhi-NCR, panic grips residents

Panic gripped residents of northern India, including Delhi-NCR, on Tuesday evening as a 6.6-magnitude tremor jolted the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Several videos and images shared online showed people gathering outside their homes, especially in high-rise buildings in the National Capital Region.

According to initial reports, nine people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Other countries affected by the earthquake were Turkmenistan, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. People ran out of their homes and into the streets as a strong tremor shook the mountainous region of Afghanistan at 10:17 p.m. There were no immediate reports of loss of life or damage to property.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the northern Indian state of Punjab. According to the National Center for Seismology (NCS), the epicenter of the earthquake was 133 km south-southeast of Fayzabad, Afghanistan, with a focal depth of 156 km. In India, the earthquake was felt in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. A resident in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar district said he felt three tremors back to back.

A senior seismologist said the reason why people in northwest India and Delhi felt the tremors for a relatively long time was because "the depth of the fault was more than 150 km". People in northern India felt the primary waves first and were then affected by the secondary waves, he said.

According to the NCS, the epicenter of the earthquake was located at 36.09 degrees North latitude and 71.35 degrees East longitude with a focal depth of 156 km. Mobile services were disrupted in some parts of Jammu region immediately after the earthquake, the official said.

In east Delhi's Shakarpur, anxious people filled the jammed streets after some claimed a building had tilted, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Two fire tenders were rushed to Jamia Nagar in southeast Delhi after a call claimed a building there was leaning, officials said, pending further information.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Strong tremors felt in Delhi-NCR. I hope you are all safe." A resident of Noida said he first noticed the dining table shaking. "We soon saw that the fans were also shaking. The earthquake was strong in terms of intensity and lasted for a relatively long time, ” said a resident of Hyde Park, Noida.