Quake hits Mizoram and adjoining areas

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit the mountainous northeastern state of Mizoram and adjoining areas on Wednesday. There was no report of any damage due to the tremor yet, officials said.

"The 4.8-magnitude quake struck Mizoram and adjoining areas of Bangladesh and northeast India at 11.59 a.m. on Wednesday," a meteorological department official said here.

"There is no report of major damage in Mizoram and adjoining areas of the northeast yet," an official of the disaster management control centre in Aizawl said, citing reports from District Magistrates across the state.

A quake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale, hit some areas of Mizoram on October 18.

The depths of the two tremors were measured at 45 km and 147 km respectively.

Seismologists consider India's mountainous northeast region as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world.

The northeast has seen some of the biggest quakes in history. In 1897, a Shillong-epicentred quake measured 8.2 on the Richter scale, while in 1950, an earthquake in Assam measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale forced the mighty Brahmaputra river to change its course.

In September 2011, Sikkim suffered heavy damage after a quake hit the Himalayan state.

--IANS

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