Quake rocks Himachal

Shimla, Oct 26: An earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan jolted Himachal Pradesh on Monday but there were no reports of damage to life or property, an official told IANS. Tremors of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake were felt for several seconds in several parts of the state, the meteorological office told IANS. The Met Office said the tremors were felt more in Kangra and Chamba districts. The India Meteorological Department said the epicentre of the quake lay in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Earlier reports said, an earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan jolted Rajasthan on Monday, forcing people to run out of their houses and offices. The temblor, at 2.43 p.m., lasted for nearly a minute, prompting residents living in high rise apartments to scramble for safety. "We felt the tremors. I was on my chair, and suddenly it started shaking. I rushed out," said Ashish Pandey, an executive in an office on the fourth floor of a mall here. Abhishek Singh, who lives on the sixth floor in a high rise building in Tilak Nagar here, was having lunch when the ground shook. "Suddenly I felt things were shaking... I saw people living in my apartment building rushing out and realised it was an earthquake," Singh told IANS. "We don't wish to go back to our flats right now," he added. Jaipur Metro stopped its services for 10 minutes, officials said. The quake was also felt in other parts of Rajasthan.