Earthquake causes panic in India and Bangladesh

GUWAHATI: An earthquake shook parts of northeast India and Bangladesh on Sunday, causing panic in places, but officials in both countries said there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale was felt in India’s Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya states. An official with the local seismological centre in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, said the epicentre was plotted along the border between Manipur and Myanmar. The tremor occurred at 12:56 pm.

Police and residents in the region said people panicked and rushed out of their homes but there were no reports of casualties or damage so far.

“Our multi-storied building shook vigorously and we ran out in panic,” said Pranjal Kumar Bhoralee, a resident in Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

India’s seven northeastern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - are considered by seismologists as the world’s sixth major earthquake-prone belt. They experienced India’s worst quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale in 1897, which killed 1,600 people.

Assam experienced a tremor measuring 8.5 in August 1950 which claimed some 1,500 lives.

In Bangladesh the quake’s strength was put at 5.6. It was felt in the southeastern city of Chittagong and also in the capital Dhaka. Officials at the Chittagong Seismic Observatory said the epicentre was 389 kilometres from the city. afp

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