Kolkata and its adjacent districts were jolted by two consecutive earthquake tremors on Friday afternoon, sending people rushing out of homes and offices in a panic.
Tremors were felt throughout the city and its adjacent districts at 1.22 p.m.
Several high-rise buildings in the city shook for several seconds.
The epicentre of the earthquake was Khulna in Bangladesh. The magnitude of the tremor was 5.5 on the Richter scale. Many people left their homes and offices in fear and panic. There were reports of several old houses leaning.
However, at the time the report was filed, there had not been any report of any major disaster following the tremors. Besides Kolkata, the tremors were felt mainly in the districts of South Bengal.
The districts where the tremors were felt the most included South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore, and West Midnapore, among others.
On February 3, at 9.05 pm, a large area of Kolkata shook following an earthquake. People immediately took to the streets. Initially, it was reported that the source of the tremor was Myanmar.
Before that, Kolkata and a large part of sSouth Bengal also shook last year in November. The source of the earthquake was near Narsingdi in Bangladesh, and its depth was 10 kilometres. The magnitude of the tremor was 5.7 on the Richter scale.
This time, the tremors are much more persistent. Many people have shared videos of the tremors on social media.
Although no official statement on the impact of the earthquake has been issued by the state administration yet, a state Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ source said that different district headquarters are being contacted to get more information on the matter.
However, the state administration had issued an appeal to the people not to panic.
