6.3 magnitude quake shakes north India

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre near Indo-Pak border shook northern states, including the Delhi-NCR region, on Tuesday, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said.

There was no immediate report of any loss of life or property due to the quake which occurred at 4.33 pm along the Jammu and Kashmir region, officials said.

"The epicentre was near the India-Pakistan border. The closest big city to the epicentre is Rawalpindi (in Pakistan's Punjab province)," said J L Gautam, head of operations at the NCS.

People rushed out of their homes and offices in panic in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

"I was preparing for my semester examination when I suddenly felt my chair and table shaking. I immediately ran outside," said a 15-year-old student who resides on the 11th floor of a building in Zirakpur in Punjab on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

Tremors were also felt in Shimla, Mandi, Kangra, Una and other parts of Himachal Pradesh.

However, there was considerable damage in Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. A woman was killed and around 50 people were injured there after a building collapsed due to the quake. Parts of a mosque also caved in.

TV channels showed heavily damaged roads in Mirpur, with many vehicles overturned and falling into gaping cracks.

The tremors were felt in several Pakistani cities including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Kohat, Charsadda, Sialkot and Abbottabad.