Panic broke out in the sleepy hill town of Rudraprayag late on Monday night as an on the Richter Scale rocked the district, tremors of which were felt right across Uttarakhand, Delhi and the National Capital Region.
Initial reports said one person was reported injured in Kalimath area of the district, though more details were awaited from the district disaster control room.
“As of now we have received information of a person being injured and have dispatched an emergency ambulance service to Kalimath, though we are still trying to confirm if it (injury) is because of the earthquake,” Rudraprayag district disaster management officer, Ashish Semwal told Hindustan Times a few minutes past midnight.
According to the preliminary report of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the earthquake was of moderate intensity occurring at 10:33 pm. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Rudraprayag district, around 180 km northwest from Uttarakhand capital Dehradun.
As soon as the tremors hit the region, panic-stricken people rushed out of their homes and stayed on the roads and in open spaces for a long time.
“We felt strong tremors and ran out of the house immediately..it felt as if someone was shaking the building strongly,” Balwant Singh, a local, told HT.
“We heard people shouting loudly as we came out. Tremors were felt for about 10-15 seconds. We are very scared about the aftershocks and wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight,” said Dhan Singh Butola, who works at a tourist rest house.
Most parts of Uttarakhand fall in either Zone V or IV of the Seismic Zone Map of India, and are susceptible to high-intensity earthquakes. The mountain state has already witnessed many low intensity earthquakes in the past few months.
Source: HindustanTimes