Quake hits North East

Agartala/Aizawl, August 23 (IANS): A 5.5-magnitude earthquake in the Myanmar-India border region on Tuesday rocked Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and some other parts of northeast India, but there was no report of major damage, officials said.   "The 5.5-magnitude quake hit various states of the northeastern region of India at 7.41 a.m. on Tuesday morning," a meteorological department official said in Agartala.   "There is no report of major damage in Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and adjoining areas of the northeast yet. Only some cracks developed in a few old buildings in Assam and Mizoram adjoining Myanmar," disaster management coordinator Sarat Das told IANS, citing reports from District Magistrates across the region.  

According to the meteorological department, the quake rocked India's northeastern states and adjoining Myanmar and Bangladesh.   Seismologists consider India's mountainous northeast region as the sixth major earthquake-prone belt in the world.   The northeast has seen some of the biggest quakes in history. In 1897, the Shillong-epicentred quake measured 8.2 on the Richter scale.   In 1950, an earthquake in Assam measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale forced the mighty Brahmaputra river to change its course. In September 2011, Sikkim underwent heavy damage after a quake hit the Himalayan state.