Earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region with a magnitude of 7.5 has rocked the Indian capital and several other cities on Monday afternoon. The tremors, lasted several minutes and were felt in the areas around Delhi, parts of Jammu and Kashmir and as far as Kabul, Islamabad and Lahore. The US Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude of the quake at 7.7. The intensity was later revised to M 7.5, 45km north of Alaqahdari-ye Kiran wa Munjan, Afghanistan.

In Delhi, people rushed out of high-rise buildings in panic as the tremors continued for several minutes. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property in the national capital, though people tweeted photos of buildings in Gurgaon that developed cracks.

In Chandigarh, video footage showed panicked people rushing out of the offices. "As we rushed out, we saw cars shaking," said a man in Chandigarh. In Srinagar, residents said they saw the buildings “swinging”, reminding them of the devastating quake in 2005.

Vineet Gahlot, the director of seismology at the Indian Meteorological Department, said the epicentre was deep in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. The quake in the northeastern Afghanistan was 196 km deep and had its epicentre in a remote area of the Hindu Kush mountain range located 256 km from Kabul.

In the Pakistan’s capital, walls swayed back and forth and people poured out of office buildings in a panic, reciting verses from the Quran. Several buildings collapsed in Pakistan’s Peshawar. A prominent Pakistan journalist tweeted that two women were killed and several others injured.  

By Premji