New Delhi: Four earthquakes in three hours brought people in south Delhi rushing out of their homes in the dead of the night yesterday. The MET office said, the quakes struck between 12:41 and 03:41 am at regular intervals; the first at 12:41 am had its epicenter near Sainik Farms area in south Delhi and happened at a depth of 10 km below the ground and it measured 3.1 on the Richter scale. Many people said they stayed out all night.
The epicenter of this quake and two others that followed lay further south – south-east of Manesar beyond Gurgaon in Haryana. The next two quakes, at 1:55 and 3:40 am were of 2.5 and 2.8 magnitude respectively. Experts described the quakes as mild tremors caused by a re-alignment in fault zones. In places like Kotla Mubarakpur near Defence Colony in south Delhi, people said they came out of their homes and did not go back in for fear of a bigger tremor.
It was a good thing to see that people came out of buildings when tremors were felt. M Shashidhar Reddy, Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said. Experts say such quakes test the preparedness of people and buildings in the national capital, which lies close to a fault line and so is susceptible to a big earthquake.
Bureau Report
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