Strong tremors in Delhi and NCR around 2 am on Wednesday shook thousands of residents out of their sleep forcing them to take protective measures following the earthquake that hit a sparsely populated area of south-west Pakistan at a magnitude of 7.4 Richter scale.
Residents rushed out of their houses in biting cold fearing the worst. “The tremors had stopped by the time we realised that we should move out. But then, our neighbours advised us to remain out of the house for another half an hour as after shocks can be equally dangerous,” said Malini Tiwari, a resident of Indirapuram, Ghaziabad.
However, for quite a large number of cricket enthusiasts, the tremors gave them a funny feeling as the earth began shaking just when Indians hit the winning runs in the ODI in South Africa. “My initial thought was why should my sofa begin shaking if India has won? It took a few seconds for me to realise it was an earthquake,” said Deepak Joshi, a software professional living in Mayur Vihar.
While there were no reports or any major loss of life or property, one person reportedly got injured in Timarpur, north Delhi, when he was trying to rush downstairs. The man was sleeping in a room on the terrace and in the nervousness to reach towards stairs, he stepped over the edge and had to be taken to the hospital. His condition was reported to be stable.
According to an IMD official, the earthquake was the 14th to have occurred this month across the world. Only one of them had the epicentre in India (in the Kutch region of Gujarat), measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale.