New Delhi - A high-magnitude earthquake centred in Bhutan on Monday rocked India's north-eastern state of Assam as well as Tibet, officials and news reports said. The temblor measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, occurred at a 10-kilometre depth and struck at 2:23 pm in India (0853 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.
Preliminary reports said cracks developed in apartments and concrete structures in Assam's capital, Guwahati, but no casualties or major damage was reported immediately.
According to the US agency, the quake's epicentre lay in Mongar, 180 kilometres east of the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, and 135 kilometres north of Guwahati near Bhutan's Himalayan border with China's Tibet region.
It could be felt strongly in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, Chinese state media said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in Lhasa or other parts of Tibet.
India's NDTV news channel reported that tremors were felt in India's north-eastern states and along the India-Bhutan border. Mild tremors were also felt in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata.
India's seven north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur are situated in an earthquake-prone zone and have reported four moderate earthquakes since August.
Assam experienced one of India's worst earthquakes, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, in 1897, killing 1,600 people.
