Praveen Menon

Dubai, May 8, 2009 – Tremors were felt across the Northern Emirates this morning after an earthquake struck off the coast of Fujairah.

Residents in the emirate said they were woken up when their homes started shaking with many running out of their buildings in the early hours.

The epicenter of the 5.3 magnitude quake was located 80km off the Fujairah coast, towards Iran, according to the US Geological Survey.

Abu Baker, a resident of Kalba described how the tremors shook his neighborhood after he returned home at about 2am.

“The bed stared rocking and I felt everything around me shaking,” he said.

Similar effects were felt by people in Dibba and Korfakkan where people ran outside after being woken up.

“We have not experienced such strong tremors before,” said Mr Satyan, a resident in the area. “I felt like the building was shaking. Many people ran out of the building,”

He said that the tremors lasted for just a few seconds.

There appeared to be no initial reports of major damage or injuries.

Mild tremors were also experienced by people in Ajman and Sharjah.

A spokesman from the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology said only the northern part of the UAE was hit, and there was no damage recorded. Dubai and Abu Dhabi were completed unaffected, he said.

pmenon@thenational.ae

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