Himachal Pradesh: 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Chamba district

Tremors were felt in parts of north India as a 5.3-magnitude earthquake hit Chamba district in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, 4 April.

Communication network has been affected in villages near the earthquake's epicenter Pangi and teams have been dispatched to the area, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster) Onkar Sharma told PTI.

Officials said that as communication is affected, reports on damages or casualty, if any, are yet to be received.

The earthquake struck at 9.34 pm and occurred at a depth of 10 km in Pangi, according to the National Center for Seismology (NCS) and officials in Shimla.

Chamba, around 370 km from the Himachal Pradesh capital, falls in the "very high damage risk" seismic zone five of the Himalayan region.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake on this day in 1905 in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra had led to large-scale death and destruction, and according to NCS records, more than 20,000 people had died in the disaster in the Western Himalayas.

More than one lakh buildings in Dharamshala, Kangra, Mcleodganj and nearby areas were damaged and about 53,000 domestic animals had died in the 1905 earthquake.

Jolts of the Thursday earthquake, according to Sharma, were felt for a "long duration" in areas in Chamba, particularly those near epicentre Pangi.

On 12 September, 1951, a 6-magnitude earthquake had struck the Chamba-Udhampur area on the border of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The area witnessed a earthquake of the same magnitude on June 17, 1962, according to records.

In 2004, Himachal Pradesh's Bharmaur area was struck by a 5.1-magnitude earthquake.

Mild tremors were also felt in other parts of Himachal Pradesh and even in Chandigarh and parts of Punjab and Haryana.

"I felt a strong jolt lasting a couple of seconds. Just when I was thinking of rushing downstairs, the tremors stopped," said Sanjay Kumar, a Chandigarh resident.