darjeelingsiligurimalda an earthquake with its epicenter 5km southwest of mirik in darjeeling district rattled west bengal at 605pm triggering panic in the hills and plains of north bengal where terrified people saw it as a sign that the nepal tragedy was getting closer hometimes cares reach out aid nepal hundreds of people in multistorey buildings in darjeeling decided to sleep in the open in siliguri highrise residents have pitched tents on open ground to spend the night measuring 51 the quake was moderate but people panicked because there have never been three earthquakes on three consecutive days in living memory this has never happened before since this is an earthquakeprone region people fear the worst said girish pradhan a former professor of geology at darjeelings loreto college darjeeling district magistrate puneet yadav said there were no casualties or damage to property by mondays quake but residents in the hill station told toi that cracks had formed in many buildingscomplete coverage nepal earthquakeread also did kathmandu shift questions and answersspain seeks indias help in getting its nationals out of nepal a multistoried shopping complex is said to have tilted a few degrees the town is now chocabloc with multistoried structures which are considered more vulnerable to quakes hundreds of residents have been spending their nights at chowrasta and mall since the nepal quake and hundreds more joined them on monday most people living in multistoried apartments have moved in with friends in onestorey houses with open courtyards to rush to safety in case of another earthquake its the same in the plains of north bengal in siliguri tents have come up on parking lots of highrise apartments on sevoke road and in playgrounds some buildings of north bengal medical college developed visible cracks and students have been staying under tarpaulin sheets since sunday shiladitya chaudhury proprietor of blue ginger a restaurant on siliguris hill cart road said we were sitting in the restaurant when we suddenly felt a tremor some glasses at the mocktail counter shattered we ran out theres a lot of panic and we havent had a single guest since then tourists had started streaming out of darjeeling since last saturday my house in the chowk area is full of relatives and friends because its onestoried with a courtyard in front its safer to stay in such a house everyone fears more aftershocks and a major quake in the coming days said nitesh gazmer a prominent jeweller of darjeeling geologists say their fears are not unfounded north bengal is where the edge of the indian tectonic plate meets the eurasian tectonic plate and is constantly pushing at it this makes the entire region extremely vulnerable the indian plate is pushing the eurasian plate north about two inches a year and this generates a lot of tectonic movement said subir sarkar a professor of geology at north bengal university mondays earthquake was generated by a movement of the indian tectonic plate it could be felt as far away as malda