Maharashtra: Strange sounds trigger panic in Latur village

AURANGABAD: Mysterious sounds emanating from the ground in Hasori village of Latur district have caused panic among residents and sparked rumours about an earthquake. The residents say they have heard strange rumbling sounds, accompanied by tremors, several times in the past seven days.
They said they first heard a loud, unexplained sound and felt the tremors on September 6 at 8.15pm. Similar sounds and tremors resurfaced on September 7 at 10.12pm, on September 8 at 2.13pm and on September 12.
Hasori is located barely 30km from the Killari village, which was rocked by one of India's most devastating earthquakes in 1993. Close to 10,000 people had died then.
To address the concerns, district collector B P Pruthviraj and a team of subject experts rushed to the village and interacted with the residents.
Pruthviraj told TOI, "According to the experts, there have been some seismic activities, but they were not strong enough to fall under the scientific definition of an earthquake."
"We have interacted with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and other subject experts. Their equipment has not recorded any earthquake-like activity. Perhaps the seismic activities were not strong enough to get recorded by the IMD. The experts are exploring the possibility of air from the earth's crust escaping due to water entering the gaps," he said.
Citing the villagers, Pruthviraj said most of the villages in a 4-5km radius have felt the tremors. The villagers even showed two to three houses that had developed cracks.
In addition to roping in experts from GSDA, IMD and SRTM University's earth science team to study the matter, the collector has also written to the Geological Survey of India, Nagpur, and the National Centre of Seismology, New Delhi.