A wave of shock and confusion enveloped Chandigarh and neighbouring States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as the residents felt high-intensity tremors for more than one minute on Monday.
The tremors triggered panic across the region following which people ran out of their homes and offices in multi-storey buildings.
Taking preventive measures, students in schools were also asked to vacate the building and come out in the open.
According to the information, no loss of life or damage to property was reported from the region.
As the tremors began, the networks from various
service providers were also affected and people could not connect to each other for several minutes.
“Earthquake tremors were felt in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Chandigarh and lasted for about one minute,” said Surender Pal, Director, Chandigarh Meterolgical Department.
He said, “The epicentre of the quake lay in the
Hindukush region in Afghanistan. The Indian Metrological Department has pegged the earthquake as ‘great’, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale. The
earthquake was located at a depth of 190 km.”
As per the reports, at least one aftershock with magnitude 4.8 at richter scale hit shortly after the earthquake.