People rushed out of buildings, onto the streets as Kolkata was jolted by an earthquake on Friday afternoon, with residents reporting tremors across the city around 1:22 pm.
According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the quake registered a magnitude of 5.5, at a depth of 10 km, with its epicentre in southwestern Bangladesh. The US Geological Survey (USGS) had earlier recorded a magnitude of 5.3, and said the epicentre was 26 km southeast of Taki, West Bengal.
Videos by local outlets and news agencies showed people gathered either in panic, or joking in relief, in Salt Lake and other areas.
Recounting the moment, Swagata, a Kolkata resident, told a news agency: “We were sitting on our sofa when we suddenly felt the tremors. We rushed out of our house. The sofa and fan were shaking, and a bottle kept on a table fell down. All of us have rushed downstairs.”
{{/usCountry}}Recounting the moment, Swagata, a Kolkata resident, told a news agency: “We were sitting on our sofa when we suddenly felt the tremors. We rushed out of our house. The sofa and fan were shaking, and a bottle kept on a table fell down. All of us have rushed downstairs.”
{{/usCountry}}Shallow earthquakes are generally more dangerous than deep earthquakes — between 0 and 70 km deep; followed by intermediate earthquakes, 70 - 300 km deep; and deep earthquakes at 300-700 km. In general, the term "deep-focus earthquakes" is applied to earthquakes deeper than 70 km, the USGS states.
Earlier in the day, an earthquake of magnitude 2.7 struck Namchi in Sikkim.