Dubai: The National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCM) has confirmed that tremors measuring three to four degrees were felt in some parts of the emirates on Tuesday afternoon.
The jolts were sent by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that rocked southern Pakistan at 3.29 pm. The epicentre of the quack was located some 950km in the north-east of Ras Al Khaimah, said the NCMS.
A major earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale has rocked southern Pakistan, sending minor tremors as far as the UAE and India.
Some Dubai residents said on Twitter they felt the ground beneath them rumble, especially those who were located on floors in high-rise buildings.
One office worker who was working on the 20th floor of a tower near Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dubai told Gulf News that he was scared when the building began to shake.
Computers were shaking and he felt dizzy as the building shook beneath him, he said, adding that his co-workers evacuated the building.
“This reminded me of the last tremors that happened in the UAE,” he said, referring to the tremors felt from an earthquake in Iran in April this year.
Residents in Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah also reported mild aftershocks.
Meanwhile, in Muscat, officials said the quake was felt more strongly than in the UAE.
“We recorded earthquake of magnitude of 7.2 on Richter scale at our centre,” Dr Essa Al Hussain, Director at the Sultan Qaboos University’s (SQU), Earthquake Monitoring Centre, told Gulf News. “We have received calls from residents saying they felt minor tremors,” Dr al Hussain added.
“We felt the mild tremors when glass cabinet began to rattle in our office and tables also shook,” Sandeep Mahajan, a senior insurance officer with Al Madinah Insurance Company, told Gulf News.
Kajal Ramaiya, who lived on fourth floor of a residential building in Wadi Kabir, said that she also felt minor tremors and had to gain balance as she was standing. “It may have lasted a few seconds but did shake things in the house,” she stressed.
Tremors were felt in Oman’s port town of Khasab, about 250 nautical miles northwest to Muscat, in May when earthquake hit Iran.
According to AFP, Mumtaz Baluch, a senior local administration official in Awaran district of Pakistan located 350 kilometres southwest of Quetta said there were “reports of houses being collapsed in the district due to earthquake. We also have initial information about injuries to people as a result of the collapse of houses but there are no reports of any deaths. We have dispatched our teams to the affected area to ascertain the losses.”
Tuesday’s tremors come after an April 7.8-magnitude quake in southeast Iran prompted tremors in the UAE.
