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Strong Earthquake Shake North India

The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said powerful tremors were felt throughout the northern plains, including in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and the National Capital Area, after an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale reached Tajikistan in central Asia.

The quake hit the Tajikistan-Xinjiang border zone at a depth of 86 km at 10.31 pm, according to the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), the news agency Reuters said.

Delhi and the National Capital Area (NCR) were rocked by tremors and felt for few seconds as far as Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. So far, no reports of damage or injuries have been reported.

The initial report came as soon as tremors were felt throughout northern India, with the earthquake’s epicenter approximately situated in Amritsar, J L Gautam of NCS said. “We had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale that it had occurred at a depth of 10km below the surface. The epicenter was the first identified to be around Amritsar, however, it was later revised after some time to be accurately placed in Tajikistan. The magnitude was also revised to 6.3” Gautam said.

The earthquake was determined to have occurred at a depth of 74km below the earth’s crust at a longitude of 38 degrees north and 73.58 degrees east, according to the updated calculation. “It took place at around 10:31 pm, following which tremors were felt through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then northern India,” Gautam said.

On Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shared fear and said he was praying for the welfare of everyone.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said no reports of any harm to Amritsar or other areas of Punjab have been reported so far. Top officials of the Punjab Police and local administration are closely monitoring the situation. He tweeted, “Top officials of Punjab Police and local administration are keeping a close watch on the situation. Praying for everyone’s safety,”

Pakistan was also struck by a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4–tremors were felt in the capital of Islamabad and the key cities of the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.