IANS

Guwahati, Dec 8: An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale shook India's northeast and parts of Myanmar Friday, triggering panic among residents here, officials said.

A scientist at the Regional Seismological Centre in Shillong, capital of of Meghalaya, said the tremor took place at 12.36 p.m. and had its epicentre along Manipur's border with Myanmar. 

The quake jolted the residents of Assam and other northeastern states. People ran out of their homes and offices.

"The office building was shaking and it was all chaos with people running of buildings to open spaces," said Luit Neil Don, a local journalist, in Assam's main city of Guwahati.

"There has been no immediate report of damage caused by the quake," police officials said. 

The seismologists consider the seven northeastern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - as the sixth most earthquake-prone belt in the world. 

Assam has experienced some of India's worst earthquakes including one measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale in 1897 that killed 1,600 people and another measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale in 1950 that left 1,500 people dead.