Afghanistan witnessed the tremors of a massive earthquake on Tuesday. The tremors lasting several seconds were also felt in parts of North India including Delhi-NCR, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The magnitude of the disaster was recorded as 6.6 on the Richter scale. The NCS took to Twitter and wrote, "Earthquake of Magnitude: 6.6, Occurred on 21-03-2023, 22:17:27 IST, Lat: 36.09 & Long: 71.35, Depth: 156 Km ,Location: 133km SSE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan." According to the United States Geological Survey, the epicentre of the quake was in Afghanistan's Jurm at a depth of 180 kilometres.
The earthquake took four lives in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region and around 50 people are injured. The tremors were also felt in parts of Pakistan, including Islamabad and Lahore. Apart from 9 deaths at least 44 cases of injury were recorded in Pakistan, reported Reuters, citing a government official.
More than 100 people were admitted in a state of shock due to which hospitals in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight. Pakistan's Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel issued an emergency alert at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) as well as the Federal Government Polyclinic as per Geo news.
In Delhi people rushed out of their homes and go down on the streets for safety. No casualties have been recorded in Delhi. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal twitted in response, "Strong tremors were felt across Delhi-NCR. Hope you all are safe."
A user claimed that he spotted EQL in the night sky during the earthquake. Actually EQL is a phenomenon such as sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and steady glows, reported in association with earthquakes are called earthquake lights (EQL).
A senior seismologist told PTI that the reason why people in northwest India and Delhi felt the tremors for a relatively longer time is because the "depth of the fault was more than 150 km. The people in northern India first felt the primary waves and then were impacted by the secondary waves”.