Updated on Monday, November 26, 2007, 00:00 IST

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 26: The residents of Delhi, National Capital Region (NCR) had a harrowing start to the week as an earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale rattled the region early Monday. The Indian Meteorological Department, classified the quake that struck at about 4.43 am as a “light intensity” one. Despite the early morning chill terrified residents fled to open spaces, however there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

There have always been worries about Delhi as it lies in Zone 4 of an earthquake danger chart on which Zone 5 the category for areas most prone to quakes.

The epicentre of the tremor was at the Delhi-Haryana border at 28.6 N latitude and 77.9 E longitude. It was centred around 10 kms from Bahadurgarh in Haryana. Today’s quake was due to the re-alignment of the Sohana tectonic plate fault line that has been in the past lead to mild tremors in the region.

Although, the Sohana fault line is not as serious a problem as the fault lines in the Himalayan region nevertheless its resurgent activities lead credence to the claims that a major earthquake can happen anytime in the region.

Besides the capital, the tremor was felt in surrounding areas such as Noida (UP), Faridabad and Gurgaon (both in Haryana). Even people in areas as far as Meerut said that they felt the early morning tremors.

A tremor of a similar magnitude had hit Mumbai and the surrounding Konkan region on Saturday but caused no damage.

The last earthquake of any significant proportions to hit the area owing to the Sohana tectonic plate shift was in October 2005. However, the national capital had been also hit by the high-intensity quake that hit Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), completely devastating its capital Muzaffarabad.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Gujarat in 2001, killing nearly 20,000 people and causing damage in neighbouring Pakistan. The quake affected 15.9 million people in 7,900 villages.