5.7 magnitude quake jolts North-east; One dead, four injured

A moderate intensity earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale and epicentred in Tripura jolted the country’s Northeast this afternoon, triggering landslides in the hill state and leaving a woman dead and four others injured.

According to the National Centre for Seismology, the epicentre of the temblor which occurred at 1439 hrs was in Dhalai district in Tripura at a depth of 28 km.

Panic-stricken people ran out of homes, offices and buildings in the region. 50-year-old woman Kamalini Kanda died after suffering a heart attack at her residence at Natunbagan in Kamalpur sub-division of the district, local MLA, Anjan Das, said.

“It was terrible as the quake lasted for about one and half minutes,” Biswajit Bhattacharya, a resident of the area, said.

At least 30 houses developed cracks, officiating Sub-divisional Magistrate of Kamalpur in Dhalai, Amitava Chakma, said. “It was the strongest earthquake that I have experienced till date. It felt as if the whole building would collapse,” Pradip Mallik, an Agartala resident, said.

The quake was traced to a location in Ambassa area, about 59 km from Agartala, an official at the Regional Seismological Centre said.

The officer-in-charge of Dhalai and Unakoti districts of state fire service department, Sukumar Debbarma, said landslides occurred in a number of places in a five-km radius along the Chhamanu-Gobindabari road.

Debbarma said a portion of the boundary wall of the fire service office at Unakoti district had collapsed due to the earthquake. “A 20-meter stretch of the boundary collapsed,” he said.