On Tuesday, most people received a shock from beneath the earth in the form of the temblor but people near Vikramshila Mahavihara experienced a shock of a different kind - a wild one - a lot earlier.

People in Antichak, Oriap, Bateshwarsthan and Parushuramchak - near the excavated site of the ancient world university in Bhagalpur district, around 270km east of Patna - received the shock of their lives when two wild elephants entered the area from neighbouring Godda district of Jharkhand.

The pachyderms destroyed mud houses and standing crops in the area. Several people were injured when they tried to escape the elephants that entered the area around 9.10am, long before the afternoon quake.

Narayan Sah, a 75-year-old resident of Sahani Tola near Bateshwarsthan, lay on a bed at the Kahalgaon sub-divisional hospital on Wednesday with wounds all over his body.

Oriap resident Radhay Das said: "The elephants destroyed over 12 mud houses and bamboo and betel plants."

On Wednesday morning, the people spotted the elephants' footmarks near the banks of the Ganga, suggesting the animals had retreated from the area.

Sanjay Kumar Singh, divisional forest officer, Bhagalpur, said: "Forest personnel reported the presence of two elephants in Dholbazza (on border of Madhepura district) on Wednesday. We are watching the situation and trying to drive them back to their original habitat in Jharkhand."