Strong tremors jolted major parts of north India, including Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, and Chandigarh on Tuesday (March 21, 2023) as an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck Afghanistan. The powerful earthquake made people rush out of their homes and come out on the streets in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and various cities of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. It shook the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan at 10.17 pm, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said. The epicentre of the earthquake was 133 km south-southeast of Fayzabad in Afghanistan, the NCS informed in a tweet. Tremors were also felt in various Pakistan cities, including Islamabad, Peshawar, Charsadda, Lahore, and Rawalpindi.

According to the NCS, the epicentre of the earthquake was located at 36.09 degrees north on the latitude and 71.35 degrees east on the longitude with a focal depth of 156 km.

There have so far been no immediate reports of damages or injuries in any city. 

According to a senior seismologist, the reason why people in northwest India and Delhi-NCR felt the tremors for a relatively long time is because the "depth of the fault was more than 150 km".

People in northern India first felt the primary waves and then were impacted by the secondary waves, he told the news agency PTI.

(With inputs from agencies)