An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck Tibet near the Nepalese border in the early hours of Tuesday, tremors of which were felt in several parts of India, including Delhi-NCR, Bihar and Assam.
There have been no reports of any casualties following the earthquake. Dramatic visuals surfaced on social media platform X where houses swayed violently due to the impact of the tremor and people were seen leaving their houses and apartments.
According to the National Center for Seismology (NCS), Tibet’s Xizang was hit by three earthquakes. The first tremor of magnitude 4.2 hit the area at 5:41 am. The second quake of 7.1 hits Tibet’s Xizang at 6:35 am. Another tremor of magnitude 4.7 struck Xizang at 7:02 am. A fourth tremor of magnitude 4.9 was reported at 7:07 am.
In several parts of Bihar, including Muzaffarpur, Motihari, Bettiah, Munger, Araria, Sitamarhi, Gopalganj, Vaishali, Nawada, and Nalanda, the tremors were felt for around 30 seconds, sources told News18.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Tibet’s second-largest city on Tuesday morning, Reuters reported citing the China Earthquake Networks Centre. Tremors were felt as far away as Nepal’s capital Kathmandu some 400 km away, as people fled their homes.
As the tremors were felt in several parts of India, people took to social media to share their experiences in dealing with the quake and the aftershocks. Dinesh Kumar Singh, a resident of Sheohar district in Bihar, described chaotic scenes as chairs and fans started shaking and people rushed out of their houses.
Nepal frequently experiences seismic activity due to its position along the Himalayan fault line, a tectonically active region. In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Kathmandu in neighbouring Nepal, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in that country’s worst earthquake.
Delhi-NCR is also known to be an earthquake-prone area due to high seismic activity. It is unique in its placement in that it trembles every three to four months as well as whenever there is an earthquake in the Himalayan region.
