6.0 magnitude earthquake shakes several parts of country

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

A moderate earthquake shook several parts of the country including Delhi on Wednesday night, forcing panicky residents to come out on the streets though there is no report of casualty or damage to property.

Meteorological department officials in Bhubaneswar said that there were no reports of causalities and urged people not to panic.

"As per the preliminary earthquake report, that a moderate earthquake of magnitude 6.0 Richter scale has occurred around 9:52 pm today night with its epicentre about 310 kilometres southeast of Bhubaneswar, i.e. in Bay of Bengal," said Director, Meteorological Department, S. C. Sahu.

The tremors lasted for 30 seconds and were felt in Koraput, Ganjam, Balasore, Puri, Sambalpur and other districts of the state.

The residents said that they felt vibrations and so all of them ran outside to the streets.

"We were sitting in the balcony when we felt some tremors and the intensity also started increasing. All the residents ran outside their homes to the street and we have been waiting since then on the street,"said a resident of Bhubaneswar, K. P. Sinha.

Tremors were also felt in capital Kolkata and the residents were rattled by the earthquake.

"We were sleeping when we felt the earthquake and we could feel the bed moving but we were so scared that we did not know how to react," a resident of Kolkata, Madhurima.