One dies, several houses damaged in Tripura quake

Kamalpura/ Agartala (Tripura) [India], Jan. 3 (ANI): A middle aged woman died and several houses were damaged after an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale rocked Tripura and adjoining northeast states of India on Tuesday afternoon. The deceased has been identified as Kamalini Kanda, resident of Nutan Bazar area in Kamalpur. Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Anjan Das, who visited here to take stock of the situation, said, "In today afternoon's earthquake, there has been a huge damage throughout the Kamalpur city. In the Mayachari area which is close to Bangladesh border. A 45 year old lady, most probably, died due to heart attack during the tremor of the earthquake." Das said he would be visiting the affected areas to estimate the loss of property and bring it to the notice of the government. Recalling the incident at the time of the earthquake, Sabita Das, a resident of Kamalpur said, "We ran out of the house somehow and my husband had just returned home, but the children were in school. Our television has been damaged after a chunk of the wall had fallen on that." According to the Disaster Management official, the epicentre was located 16 kilometre from Kumarghat in North Tripura district and about 19 km northeast of Ambassa at around 2.39 p.m. The tremor lasted for about four to five seconds. The seven northeastern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - are considered by seismologists as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world. The region experienced an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale in 1897. Over 1,600 people had died in that quake. (ANI)