Kolkata earthquake: Panic after strong tremors, people rush out to streets
Kolkata earthquake: The tremors caused panic among residents who rushed out of homes and offices.
Kolkata and several adjoining districts were jolted by strong earthquake tremors on Friday, causing panic among residents who rushed out of homes and offices. According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the quake originated in Bangladesh.
The tremors were caused by a 5.7-magnitude earthquake in Bangladesh's Narsingdi, the National Centre for Seismology said.
The quake struck 13 km south-southwest of Narsingdi in the neighbouring country at 10.08 am, and at a depth of 10 km, it said.
Several people in West Bengal and the northeast, including Kolkata and Assam’s Guwahati, were seen coming out on the streets as a precautionary measure.
Many Kolkata residents took to social media to describe the intensity. “Small quake but big panic,” wrote Supratim Maitra on X, adding that even a brief jolt caused alarm across neighbourhoods.
Another user, Vinay Kumar Dokania, said the tremors were unusually long: “That #earthquake lasted over 30 seconds and was very powerful.”
There was no immediate report of any loss of life or damage to property, officials said.
Google Trends
According to Google Trends, the search term “earthquake kolkata” spiked sharply on Friday after mild tremors were felt across parts of Kolkata and surrounding districts, prompting residents to look for instant updates online. The highest search interest came from West Bengal (100), followed by Sikkim (6), Jharkhand (3), Karnataka (3) and Odisha (3). Related breakout queries reflected real-time panic and curiosity, with users searching “was there an earthquake in Kolkata just now,” “earthquake today Kolkata just now,” “earthquake West Bengal,” “earthquake today West Bengal now,” and “today earthquake news.”
