Panic gripped people in Uttar Pradesh when an earthquake said to be measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale with epicentre in Sikkim jolted north India at 6.17 pm on Sunday.

The state Meteorological department described the quake as of “moderate intensity” in UP. It has not ruled out the possibility of after shocks. Earlier, on September 7, tremors had hit some areas of UP adjoining Delhi. However, on Sunday no causality of any kind was reported till reports last came in. State Met director, JP Gupta said that after shocks can occur in next 24 hours.

The people in the Lucknow also felt the tremors for 30 seconds. Initially, people could not realise but later came out in open space leaving offices and home when they felt the tremors. The impact was more visible in the high rise buildings. But at some places, people did not feel anything and came to know about the quake later through news channels. Similar reports were received from Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut and Gorakhpur.

Significantly, the city does not have any seismometer to record earthquake. A senior officer of the earthquake division, at the regional office of Geological Survey of India (GSI), Lucknow, said that they rely on data of the Meteorological department.

Geologist Dhruvsen Singh, also faculty in the department of geology in Lucknow University, said that there is no seismometer in the state anywhere to measure earthquake. In some research institutes, small seismometers have been installed purely for research. The geology department of Lucknow university also has a seismometer installed by National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, for research activity.

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