AN earthquake measuring 4.9 magnitude on the Richter scale occurred at around 5:28 am on Friday in a village, situated a few distances away from Baikunthpur in Koriya district. This is the fourth earthquake in the district in a span of four-months. Earlier, earthquake occurred on 9th July, 11th July and 4th August. People are worried with frequency of the earth quake.

Surguja Commissioner Sanjay Alang has expressed concern about the increasing scale of the earthquake.

Shortly after the earthquake, the thatch of a house in Katgodi of Sonhat area was damaged. Angered with this, the villagers gheraoed the main gate of the mine located at Katghori of Charcha Colliery, holding SECL’s blasting responsible for it. Learning this, the sub area manager reached the spot and tried to pacify the people by terming it as natural disaster.

People are in panic after earthquake tremors were felt in the district. About 65-kilometers from Ambikapur, Baikunthpur in Koriya was the epicentre of the earthquake. The tremors of an earthquake of magnitude 4.8 were felt here at 5:28 am in the morning and its centre is reported to be 10-kilometers beneath the ground. This has been confirmed by the meteorologist. About a month ago also seismic tremors were felt at the same place. According to preliminary information, this earthquake was centred at a depth of 10 kilometres from the surface, whose geographical latitudinal position was 23.33° North latitude and 82.58° East longitude. The earth quake occurred in the early morning, due to which many people did not feel it, but those who gave information about it said that they felt a slight jolt. Senior Meteorologist H P Chandra from MeT department, Raipur said that earthquake occurred at Kalan village at 05:28:23 am with a magnitude of 4.8 in Richter scale. The depth of earth quake was 10-kilometers with 23.23 latitude and 82.58 longitudes.