Panic in India after quake hits Iran and Pak, kills 61

JOLT Buildings in Delhi, Gurgaon and towns of Rajasthan shake; 2 quakes in north east

NEW DELHI: A strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre near the Iran-Pakistan border triggered tremors across the National Capital Region ( NCR) and through western India on Tuesday. It raised fresh questions about the nation’s preparedness in handling large quakes.

Two other independent earthquakes — one in Nongpoh, Meghalaya, and the other in eastern Tibet — shook northeast India and Odisha, setting off a mudslide in Barpeta district of Assam that killed a boy who had gone fishing in the Beki river with two friends who survived.

The temblor 83km east of Khast in Iran was shallow, its birth just 15.2km below the earth’s surface increasing its destructive power, leaving at least 40 dead in Iran and another 21 dead in Pakistan, according to reports. It came just a week after another quake had struck Iran’s port city of Bushehr, killing 30. Tremors from Tuesday’s Iran quake were felt as far as in the Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Gulf.

Office goers across Delhi and its suburban towns — Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad — felt the 4:14 pm quake, with many people rushing out of high-rise buildings, adding to a sense of panic.

“The television set in our office started shaking and soon the intensity of the jolts increased and I realised it was an earthquake,” said Komal Sharma, who works in Connaught Place. “We all rushed out of our building and gathered in the open area.”

CONTINUED ON P7 RELATED REPORTS, P7