Assam hit by 5.1 magnitude earthquake

Guwahati: An earthquake of 5.1 magnitude jolted the central part of Assam on Monday morning, an official bulletin said.

There is no immediate report of any injury to anyone or damage to any property, officials said.

A National Centre for Seismology report said the quake was recorded at 4.17 am in Morigaon district on the southern bank of Brahmaputra, at a depth of 50 km.

The epicentre of the earthquake was located at a latitude 26.37 N and longitude of 92.29 E in central Assam, it added.

People in the neighbouring Kamrup Metropolitan, Nagaon, East Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong, Hojai, Dima Hasao, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Dhubri, South Salmara-Mankachar and Goalpara districts also felt the jolt.

Darrang, Tamulpur, Sonitpur, Kamrup, Biswanath, Udalguri, Nalbari, Bajali, Barpeta, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Lakhimpur on the northern bank of Brahmaputra too felt the tremor.

The earthquake could be felt in some areas of central-western Arunachal Pradesh, entire Meghalaya, and several areas of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal.

Central-eastern Bhutan, parts of China and Bangladesh were also shaken, the report showed.

The tremor forced people to scamper out of their homes to open areas from their sleep.

The northeastern region falls in the high seismic zone, making it earthquake-prone.