Powerful tremors, the most palpable in recent memory, jolted Calcutta and swathes of south Bengal on Friday afternoon as a magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck neighbouring Bangladesh. Experts said the tremors felt so powerful because the epicentre was the closest to Calcutta in recent memory. According to earthquake tracking websites, the epicentre was less than 100km from Calcutta. The joltThe earthquake struck at 1.22pm in Bangladesh at a depth of 9.8km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The crack possibly developed because the guard wall of an adjacent waterbody collapsed after the earthquake,” said a KMC engineer.

Source: The Telegraph February 28, 2026 01:53 UTC