Very mild tremors were felt in Kolkata and several parts of Bengal on Saturday morning as an earthquake hit neighbouring Bangladesh.
No casualties have been reported in Kolkata.
The quake, measuring 5.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, was felt shortly after 9am. It lasted for a few seconds.
The epicentre of the quake was located 48km southwest of Comilla.
There were varying reports on the intensity and depth of the quake.
According to the National Center for Seismology (NCS), the earthquake took place in southeastern Bangladesh 55km inside the earth’s surface at 9.05am.
“Earthquake of Magnitude: 5.6, Occurred on 02-12-2023, 09:05:31 IST, Lat: 23.15 & Long: 90.89, Depth: 55 Km, Location: Bangladesh, India,” the NCS said on X (formerly Twitter).
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the magnitude of the earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale and the depth was 10km.
An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck the Bangladesh region on Saturday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.
The quake was at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), GFZ said.
“Kolkata was too far from the epicentre to feel any direct impact,” said Sankar Kumar Nath, professor of geophysics and seismology at IIT Kharagpur.
Social media was flooded with posts from Kolkatans. An X user posted a picture of a ceiling fan swaying at 9.05am. “Felt an earthquake in Kolkata just now,” the post read.
Saturday’s quake is the latest in a series of recent earthquakes in Bangladesh.
In seismic parlance, a quake of magnitude 5 just about qualifies as “strong”.