Guwahati (PTI): An earthquake of 5.1 magnitude jolted the central part of Assam on Monday morning, an official bulletin said.

There is no immediate report of any injury to anyone or damage to any property, officials said.

A National Centre for Seismology report said the quake was recorded at 4.17 am in Morigaon district on the southern bank of Brahmaputra, at a depth of 50 km.

The epicentre of the earthquake was located at a latitude 26.37 N and longitude of 92.29 E in central Assam, it added.

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People in the neighbouring Kamrup Metropolitan, Nagaon, East Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong, Hojai, Dima Hasao, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Dhubri, South Salmara-Mankachar and Goalpara districts also felt the jolt.

Darrang, Tamulpur, Sonitpur, Kamrup, Biswanath, Udalguri, Nalbari, Bajali, Barpeta, Baksa, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Lakhimpur on the northern bank of Brahmaputra too felt the tremor.

The earthquake could be felt in some areas of central-western Arunachal Pradesh, entire Meghalaya, and several areas of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal.

Central-eastern Bhutan, parts of China and Bangladesh were also shaken, the report showed.

The tremor forced people to scamper out of their homes to open areas from their sleep.

The northeastern region falls in the high seismic zone, making it earthquake-prone.

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Koppal: Tension prevailed for a brief period at Hitnal village in Koppal taluk on Monday after a chair was allegedly hurled at Union Minister of State for Railways and Jal Shakti, V. Somanna, during a public function.

The incident occurred when Somanna was attending the foundation stone–laying ceremony for a railway flyover near Hitnal village.

According to reports, a group of Congress workers expressed anger over the alleged exclusion of Koppal MP K. Rajashekar Basavaraj Hitnal and District In-charge Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi from the invitation list for the program. During the incident, a chair was reportedly thrown, but the Minister was unharmed as his security personnel intervened in time.

Following the incident, chaos ensued at the venue for some time, with protesters allegedly throwing chairs and staging a demonstration in front of Somanna’s vehicle, accusing the organisers of violating protocol.

The railway flyover project, being taken up for Rs 27 crore, connects the Hitnal–Munirabad–Ginigera stretch.

Reacting to the incident, Somanna said the project was fully funded by the Central government and denied any breach of protocol. “There was no violation of etiquette related to the programme. The disturbance was created intentionally,” he said.