Quake on Himachal-J&K border rattles north India

Tremors were felt in the Indian capital and large parts of north India, including Srinagar, Jammu, Shimla and Chandigarh, following a 5.8 magnitude quake centred near the Jammu and Kashmir-Himachal Pradesh border Wednesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

"The quake happened at 12.27 p.m. and measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was near Kishtwar town at the Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh border region," R.S. Dattatreya, director, Department of Seismology, India Meteorological Department (IMD), told IANS.

"It is a moderate tremor in Delhi and other northern regions. We ask the public not to panic," Dattatreya said.

"The quake was 10 kilometres beneath the earth's surface...the possibility of aftershocks are very minimal for such a low intensity quake," added L.S. Rathore, the IMD's director general (Meteorology).

In Jammu, an official of the Met department said: "The maximum impact of the quake was felt in Doda and Kishtwar districts."

The tremors, felt across large parts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Punjab,, lasted six to seven seconds. It caused panic in some places, particularly in hilly areas, some of which reported cracks in homes and buildings.

Reports of cracks in office and residential buildings and disruption of communication systems were reported from Bhaderwah, Doda and Kishtwar towns of Jammu region. Details of damage caused were not immediately available.

"We have reports of many buildings having developed big cracks while some mud houses in Chatroo, Thathri, Bhaderwah areas have collapsed," an official in Jammu said.

The administration was gathering information, "but so far there is no report of loss of life", he added.

In Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar and other parts of the Valley, people rushed out of their homes and workplaces in panic when the tremor occurred.

"I witnessed the chair rocking as the earthquake occurred. It took me a few seconds to realise what was happening. Everybody started running out of the building in panic," said Sajad Ahmad, a local businessman in Srinagar.

Kashmir is situated in an earthquake prone region where huge devastation has been caused by earthquakes in the past.

On Oct 8, 2005, more than 40,000 people were killed in a massive quake that struck both parts of divided Kashmir. The quake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale.

In Himachal Pradesh, Sandeep Kadam, the deputy commissioner of Chamba, told IANS over the phone that there were reports of cracks in some houses in Pangi and Tissa areas of the district.

Chamba is one of remotest places in the state where most of the houses in the interiors are made of mud.

North India had felt two mild tremors in April alone. On April 24 a series of tremors were felt when an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre in the Hindu Kush ranges off Afghanistan. In April 16, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked the Pakistan-Iran region.