Kolkata Earthquake: An earthquake that struck Kolkata on Friday (February 27) triggered panic across several parts of the city, with residents rushing out of homes and offices after feeling tremors. In Behala’s Parnasree area, cracks developed on a newly constructed road at Manna Para shortly after the tremors were felt. The stretch had been completed just a day ago under the ‘Amader Para Amader Samadhan’ project. On Friday afternoon, West Bengal shook due to the earthquake with the epicentre lying in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Local residents claimed that the road surface split following the earthquake, raising concerns over the durability and quality of the construction work. As seen in the video, people gathered outside their homes after the earthquake occurred in the afternoon. The cracks look significant as it spreads through a major portion of the road. Residents stated that the road was built recently, and the cracks exposed the quality of it. Though no individual was hurt but it indicates that the road would not have survived had the tremors were more powerful.
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According to officials, the Thursday earthquake was of 5.4 magnitude.
Following the tremors, buildings of schools, malls, offices and others were evacuated immediately, averting the loss of any lives so far. However, residents got panicked during the earthquake. They said they felt the earth shaking for full three to five seconds, which had scared them.
“I was sitting on a sofa in the lobby of the Assembly House when I felt light-headed and realised that the seat was moving unnaturally. I realised this was an earthquake and rushed out of the building along with others. We are still standing outside in apprehension of aftershocks,” Karabi Manna, the MLA of Haripal in Hooghly district, told a vernacular TV channel.
The temblor was recorded at a depth of 10 km below Earth’s surface. The epicentre of the quake was the Satkhira district of Bangladesh, located at some 100 km from Kolkata and barely 25 km from the bordering areas of Taki in North 24 Parganas district, he said.
No aftershocks of the quake were immediately felt after the first bout of tremors.
