Strong tremors shake Kolkata and several West Bengal districts after 5.7-magnitude quake in Bangladesh

Many districts of West Bengal, including Kolkata and adjacent areas, felt strong earthquake tremors on Friday morning at around 10.08 AM, causing panic among the people, who rushed out of their homes and offices.

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck near the Ghorashal area in Bangladesh at 10.8 am. The epicentre of the quake was 14 km from Narsingdi in Bangladesh.

According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the quake originated in Bangladesh. According to NCS, the earthquake magnitude was 5.7 today at 10:08 AM (Latitude: 23.77 N, Longitude: 90.51 E, and the depth is 10 Km

in Bangladesh.

The tremors were felt all across Kolkata, Saltlake, Hooghly, Malda, Murshidabad and also in North Bengal's Uttar Dinapur and Coochbehar districts as well and Bangladesh neighbouring Tripura in North East.

"Our Geological Survey of India (GSI) office is a multi-storeyed building in Saltlake. We were sitting in our chairs in the office. We felt the tremor. So, we quickly came out of the building and started evacuating the building," a GSI employee said. Same was the situation in Saltlake and Rajarhat Newtown's IT sector, which has multiple highrises.

"The employees in the 10-12 floors felt the tremor more. They alerted us and we took the staircases to come down," said another GSI employee, who said there were chances of aftershocks.

In Murshidabad, major tremor was felt all across the district. The multi-storeyed buildings were quickly evacuated and people came out on the road. Same was in Hooghly district.

An expert and professor of Jadavpur University Construction Engineering department Parthapratim Biswas, "Bengal is located on the soft alluvial clay. In Kolkata and adjacent areas, there are innumerable illegal buildings, old buildings and buildings constructed by filling up water bodies and ponds. So the risks of these buildings are more during earthquakes. When the water bodies are filled and buildings are set up, they have less strength to hold the constructions. The civic body must buckle up and be cautious."

A major part of West Bengal, particularly the Kolkata region, is located on the Gangetic plains on a deep layer of soft alluvial clay and silty clay deposits.