Bhubaneswar, April 26: Panic gripped the twin cities today after a mild tremor was felt shortly after midday.

Today's earthquake came barely 24 hours after yesterday's tremor, the epicentre of which was in Nepal where there has been widespread destruction. Yesterday's calamity killed thousands in Nepal and several people in India.

Around 12.39pm today, people felt the mild tremor and those in multi-storey buildings rushed out to open spaces.

As it was a Sunday, many people were either at home or visiting shopping malls. Though many living on ground floors of apartments and single-storey houses could not feel the tremor, those staying in high-rises felt it and panicked.

People residing in other parts of India, especially northern India, also felt the tremor today.

"We had experienced an earthquake around 24 hours ago though it was a bit more intense. But when things started shaking again today, we could feel the tremor and rushed out of the house," said Dhanurjaya Rath, a resident of the city.

People thronging mall when the tremor struck said it reminded them of yesterday. "We immediately rushed out of the mall. Thank God the tremor lasted only for a few seconds," said Anweshan Mohanty, a student who was in a mall.

In Cuttack, Janapriya Mohanty, 32, a homemaker staying by Mission Road, rushed out along with her five-year-old son from a four-storey building.

With memories of the devastation caused by the massive earthquake that hit Nepal yesterday fresh, Mohanty was scared by the mild tremor today.

"I was sitting at a table when my head started to reel and it did not took me long to realise that it was an aftershock of yesterday's earthquake. I was frightened as a large number of people had already been killed in Nepal," said Mohanty.

Not just Mohanty, several residents in Cuttack had also prepared themselves for similar tremors.

"We had already witnessed the damaged caused in Nepal as well as in other parts of India. Hence, we had removed all heavy articles placed on the roof inside our house to prevent injuries in case of aftershocks," said Subham Das, a resident of Tulsipur.

Officials in the meteorological centre here said the epicentre of today's earthquake was also in Nepal, which was around 810km from Bhubaneswar.

"An earthquake of moderate intensity with a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 12.39pm with its epicentre in Nepal. The earthquake was felt in some parts of Odisha," said S.C. Sahu, director of the Met centre.