A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck in Tajikistan on Friday with tremors felt across North India including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, prompting people to rush out of their homes.
Visible effects of the temors were felt the most in Amritsar in Punjab. Strong tremors were felt in Delhi and surrounding areas for several seconds. The epicentre of the earthquake was in Tajikistan, about 450 km from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, according to India’s National Center for Seismology.
The earthquake struck at 10:31 pm IST at a depth of 74 km from the surface.
Rahul Gandhi’s reaction as earthquake struck
#earthquake @RahulGandhi in between in a live interview when earthquake happened.#earthquake pic.twitter.com/GRp9sxHoMY
— Rohit Yadav (@RohitnVicky) February 12, 2021
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was unflustered by the tremors while he was virtually interacting with the students of the University of Chicago and calmly continued with the live programme.
“By the way, I think there’s an earthquake going on,” Rahul Gandhi was heard saying in the live virtual interaction with historian Dipesh Chakrabarty and political science students from the University of Chicago.
“Earthquake tremors felt in Delhi. Praying for everyone’s safety,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
There was no immediate report of any damage to life or property.
Strong tremors were also felt in Amritsar and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s spokesperson said he spoke to the police commissioner.
