Shaken up: Tremors create panic in parts of Sindh

SUKKUR/ KARACHI:

In what could be the aftershocks of powerful earthquake that jolted several parts of the country on Tuesday, residents in a number of areas in Karachi were seen coming out into the streets in panic on Saturday.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department director general, Arif Mahmood, told The Express Tribune that the tremors might continue for days to come as the aftershocks of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, having its epicentre 120 kilometres southwest of Khuzdar in Balochistan, were still taking place.

However, a conflict in analysis of the Saturday tremors appeared between officials of the Pakistan Meteorological Department. Chief meteorologist at the National Seismic Monitoring Centre, Muhammad Tauseef Alam, said that the tremors felt in Karachi for a span of eight to ten seconds were a result of a fresh earthquake of  7.2 magnitudes, whose epicentre was 150 kilometres southwest of Khuzdar.

Apart from Karachi, tremors were also felt in Sukkur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Qamber-Shahdadkot, Thull, Kandhkot, Kashmore and Dadu districts of the province.

In Jacobabad, five members of a family were injured when roof of a katcha house collapsed in Mengal Kanrani village near Thull.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2013.