Strong tremors were felt across north India in the small hours today after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Himalayan region near Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand along the Nepal border.
The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said the epicenter of the earthquake was in Nepal, about 90 km east-southeast of Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, and it struck at 1.57 am.
The tremors were felt in Delhi and surrounding areas of Ghaziabad and Gurugram and even in Lucknow, jolting people out of their sleep.
The quake sparked off a meme fest as social media users pointed out that the national capital, already suffering due to severe air pollution, got yet another jolt.
One of the most popular memes shared a photograph of actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman after the Deadpool actor was tricked into wearing an ugly sweater at a party. In one of the memes on the Delhi tremors, Reynolds, with his priceless pranked expression, was tagged as people of Delhi. Gyllenhaal and Jackman, seen having a laugh at him, are tagged earthquake and pollution, respectively.
The Himalayan region in Uttarakhand and adjoining Nepal has been experiencing earthquakes of lower magnitude for the past couple of days.
Union Minister Meenakashi Lekhi tweeted, "Didn't want to tweet but one can safely say it did feel like an earthquake!" Congress leader Radhika Khera urged people to "stay alert and stay safe".
Radio Jockey Raunac said, "It was scary…extremely scary." The USGS said the epicentre of the earthquake was at 21 km from Dipayal in Nepal.
The region had experienced at least two earthquakes of 4.9 magnitude and 3.5 magnitude late Tuesday evening, the NCS data showed.
A 4.5 magnitude earthquake had struck Uttarakhand on Sunday with the epicenter 17 km east-southeast of Uttarkashi.