A moderate-intensity earthquake on Friday jolted Jammu and Kashmir although no loss of life or property has been reported so far, an official said.
“A moderate-intensity earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale occurred at 3.29 a.m. today (Friday),” Sonam Lotus, director of the local Met Office, told IANS in Srinagar.
He said the epicentre of the earthquake was in Pakistan.
Many residents in Srinagar city and some other places in the Kashmir Valley said panic gripped them as the tremor jolted them out of sleep.
“I felt as if somebody was rocking the bed before I realized it was an earthquake. I could not sleep after that,” said Nazir Ahmad, 42, who lives in North Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
Jammu and Kashmir is situated in an earthquake-prone region where temblors have caused devastation in the past.