A high intensity earthquake hit Tajikistan on Friday night, tremors of which were felt in Delhi-NCR and several other parts of north India.
The seismology department at first erroneously gave the epicentre as Amritsar and put the quake's depth at 19 km.
It later sent a revised statement to confirm the quake was in Tajikistan.
It ascribed the error to a software mistake.
According to the National Centre for Seismology, the magnitude of the quake was 6.3.
The tremors created panic among people who rushed out of their homes.
However, there were no immediate reports of any loss of life or damage to property.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was virtually interacting with students of University of Chicago, was heard saying that his entire room was "shaking".
National Conference leader said the tremors reminded the people of the 2005 quake in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Not since the earthquake of 2005 have the tremors in Srinagar been bad enough to force me out of the house. I grabbed a blanket & ran. I didn't remember to take my phone & so was unable to tweet 'earthquake' while the damn ground was shaking," he tweeted.
"No reports of any damage so far in Amritsar or other parts of Punjab following the earthquake. Top officials of Punjab police and local administration are keeping a close watch on the situation. Praying for everyone's safety," chief minister Amarinder Singh said in a tweet.
Deputy Commissioner Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh Khaira said all his officers are on their toes and police PCR vehicles are moving in the city.
Police Commissioner Amritsar Sukchain Singh Gill said everything was normal at the Golden Temple too and volunteers were doing sewa as usual.
In Chandigarh, Class 11 student Aditya, who was preparing for his school exams, said "I thought somebody was pushing my chair."
J L Gautam, Operations Head of the NCS said the "epicentre of the earthquake is Tajikistan. Our preliminary findings said the epicentre was Amritsar. We have now revised the epicentre".
According to M Rajeevan, Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, "The message was wrongly taken out by the system. It has been corrected."
The NCS had also said there were two quakes - the Tajikistan one occurred at 10.31 PM while the Amritsar quake happened at 10.34 PM.
"There was only one quake," Gautam said later.
The Himalayan and the Hindukush mountain ranges are prone to quakes and many a time its tremors can be felt across the Indo-Gangetic belt.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal prayed for safety of people.
According to the Delhi fire department, no calls were immediately received for help.
Rajasthan governor Kalraj Mishra also tweeted about the tremors and prayed for well being of all.
Pakistan
A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.4 jolted Pakistan on Friday night.
No loss of life or property was reported so far.
The tremor was felt in capital Islamabad and major cities of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab provinces and Pakistan occupied-Kashmir.
Stills on news channels showed panic-stricken people rushing out of their homes, reciting verses from the Holy Quran.
Pakistan geologically overlaps the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates and is a earthquake-prone zone.
The Chaman Fault poses the biggest threat of quakes to the country.
Stills from Friday night, brought back memories of the 7.6-magnitude quake to hit the country in 2005, which killed more than 73,000 people.
Afghanistan
An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan's Fayzabad, informed the National Center for Seismology.
According to the NCS, the quake took place at 10.31 pm on Friday.
"Earthquake of Magnitude:6.3, Occurred on 12-02-2021, 22:31:33 IST, Lat: 38.00 & Long: 73.58, Depth: 74 Km ,Location: 285km ENE of Fayzabad, Afghanistan," NCS tweeted.
Tajikistan
An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 on Richter scale jolted Tajikistan on Friday night, United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake struck at the depth of 91.6 km and its epicentre was located 35 km west of Murghab town in Tajikistan. It occurred at 10:31 pm (local time).
No casualties have been reported so far.
The area of the epicentre is largely unpopulated mountain terrain.
Tremors were also felt in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, the earthquake tremors were felt in parts of Delhi, NCR, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir too.
Geo News reported that tremors were felt in Islamabad, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Mardan, North Waziristan, Swat, Multan, Sargodha, Faisalabad, and Lahore.
