Two injured in Shillong

Our Bureau

SHILLONG, Jan 4: A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 magnitude in the richter scale jolted Northeast India including Shillong in the early hours of Monday morning, making panicked residents fleeing into the streets. Two people were reported to have sustained injuries due to the panic.

The victims were identified as Soma Devi (37) and Chitra Ghosh both were immediately shifted to a city hospital.

Devi fractured her leg and arm when she fell down the steps while carrying her daughter to safety during the tremor while Ghosh too fell from the steps while running to safer grounds.

The epicentre of the earthquake, which occurred at around 4.37 AM at a depth of 17 km below the ground, was at Tamenglong District which is located 33 km from Imphal in Manipur.

“I have sent messages to all the Block Development officers (BDO) to give me the feedback but till now I have not received anything so far however one thing I’m sure there is no loss of life, there might be some damage to property but right now I’m waiting to receive information from my officers,” PS Dkhar, Deputy Commissioner, East Khasi Hills told the media here on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ronnie Wahlang, District Magistrate, said that though no buildings or house has been damaged, there are some hairline cracks in the High Court Guest House and some other buildings.

On the other hand, soon after the disaster, the Shillong based Eastern Air Command swung into action and tasked three planes to transport NDRF personnel and other essential items as part of the response to worst hit Manipur. Informing this Defense Spokeman based in Shillong Group Captain Mahajan said, “The Eastern Air command was tasked by Air HQ to airlift the NDRF team from Guwahati. Accordingly, one Avro aircraft transported 14 NDRF personnel & 02 tons of of load while an AN 32 aircraft carried 49 NDRF personnel along with 1.3 tons of load. Later the AN 32 undertook another sortie from Guwahati to convey a team of 33 NDRF personnel to Silchar.”