india

Updated: Feb 12, 2019 16:14 IST

Mild tremors rattled some parts of Tamil Nadu’s Chennai early on Tuesday morning following an earthquake in the Bay of Bengal sending residents out of their houses in panic.

Residents of Choolaimedu, Koyambedu, Porur, Alandur, Guindy and elsewhere felt the tremors around 7am. No casualty or damage to property was reported.

According to a bulletin from the Indian Meteorological Department, the quake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale was a moderate one. It struck below the sea level, 600km northeast in the Bay of Bengal.

“I felt my chair shaking while having the morning coffee. I could feel it very much,” said Vijayalakshmi, a resident of Choolaimedu.

The impact of the earthquake was felt more along the coastline. Following the tremors, there was an apprehension of a tsunami in the fishing hamlets. However, the Met Department ruled out a tsunami.

More than 8,000 people were killed after a tsunami in Tamil Nadu’s coastal areas like Nagapattinam, Chennai, Cuddalore, Velankanni and Poompuhar in 2004.

Many took to social media to share their experience as well as apprehensions about the tremor while some recalled disastrous quakes like the one in Gujarat’s Bhuj in 2001.

The last time the city was rocked by a strong tremor was in 2011, when people rushed out of their offices and stood on the roads for more than two hours.