“MYSTERY” ’QUAKE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 5

“MYSTERY” ’QUAKE

NO GREAT DAMAGE EPICENTRE IN INDIA '(N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 11.0 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 16. The United Press Calcutta correspondent says that no reports were received to-day of great damage by the “mystery” earthquake —considered one of the greatest in history—recorded last night in various parts of the world. More earth tremors were recorded to-day in Shillong, about 300 miles north-west of Calcutta as well as in other parts of Assam. Indian observatories estimate that the epicentre was in the region where the Indian, Burmese, Tibetan and Chinese frontiers meet. The first casualties reported were in the commercial town of Dirugarh, about 100 miles from the India-Burma border, where one person was killed and 20 injured when a house cdllapsed during the earthquake. All-India radio said to-night that north-east Assam towns of Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Golaghat, Pakibari and Badia were hit. In these centres buildings and houses were damaged and railways and telegraph systems dislocated. A later message says that four deaths were, reported late to-night from the earthquake which shook east and north-east India yesterday. More than 2000 houses, mosques and temples were completely destroyed in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, according to reports received by the AllIndia radio.

Lakhimpur, about 150 miles west of the Burma frontier, is believed to be practically ruined. Roads bear deep fissures, and houses and public buildings have been shattered.