The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences said on Friday that an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale hit Tajikistan, the tremors of which were also felt in Delhi and other parts of north India.
The earthquake struck the Central Asian country at 10:31 p.m. on Friday. The tremors were felt for more than 30 seconds in the national capital and its surrounding regions.
Notably, the Ministry of Earth Sciences changed the data twice prior to mentioning Tajikistan as the epicentre. Minutes after the tremors were felt in India, the NCS showed the magnitude to be 7.5 and its epicentre 35 km from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pursuant to this, the NCS website changed it to 6.1 magnitude, 18 km from Amritsar district in Punjab. Finally, the ministry clarified that the actual epicentre was in Tajikistan.
Contrary to India’s data, the United States Geological Survey, the scientific agency of the US government, showed that the earthquake was of 5.9 magnitude and hit 35 km west of Murghob in Tajikistan.
Currently, the hashtag #earthquake is trending on Twitter in India with scores of people taking to the microblogging site to upload videos of their ceiling fans moving frantically.
No casualties or damage to property have been reported so far.