What’s On reports on the earthquake in Dubai which was felt as a result of an earthquake in Iran. People were evacuated from buildings across the UAE.

Tremors were felt in Dubai on Tuesday morning after an earthquake rocked Iran causing buildings to shake as far afield as the UAE.

The quake, the epicenter of which was in Qasham E Sofla, measured 5.2 on the richter scale, officials at UAE’s National Center of Meteorology & Seismology (NCMS) confirmed.

Twitter was awash with scared people around Dubai and Abu Dhabi as reports of buildings wobbling swamped the social media site.

It’s the first time such a feeling has swept through the city since April 2013 when a  7.8-magnitude earthquake near the Iran-Pakistan border was felt as far as the UAE. On that occasion 30 people were killed in Iran while thousands of people were evacuated from their buildings in Dubai, some 300 to 500 miles away from the disaster zone. As a result building regulations in the UAE have been changed, ruling that any new towers over 10 stories need to be a third more resident to quakes than previously stated.

Speaking in the aftermath of that event, Dr Kamal Atiya, an expert from the Dubai Municipality’s survey department, allied fears over the earth shaking. “The earthquake zone is always on the edge of the seismic plates, which in our region of the Arabian plate passes through the middle of Iran – far, far away from the UAE,” he said.

Mohammed Mushroom, director of the survey department at Dubai Municipality, also moved at the time to calm fears of those who were experiencing such things for the very first time. “Dubai is outside the threat range for earthquakes,” he added. “But it never hurts to be prepared. Skyscrapers and towers in Dubai have all been tested to withstand earthquakes of higher magnitudes than we will ever see here. They also follow the UK building regulation with regard to seismic activity.”

The calming words of 13 months ago seem to have done the trick, with most people reporting light shaking of desks and little more. Reports came in from Bur Dubai, Healthcare City, TECOM, Downtown, Dubai Marina, Silicon Oasis and even Abu Dhabi.

Laura Centa, who works as a physiotherapist in Satwa, told What’s On: “We just got evacuated, I can’t believe it. I was midway through seeing a patient and then we were told to get out of the building. Very strange because not everyone felt something.”

Anthea Ayache wrote on Twitter: “In the Marina and whole building did shake…”, while Olivia Cuthbert added: “Definitely a desk wobble in tecom.”
Daniel Cinoy added: “Yep whole building shook in media city – my table moved a bit. pretty sure it was over in less than 10 seconds.”
Claire Weibel replied to Gavin Payne when asked if she had felt the shake: “Yes and it freaks me out!!! In media city also.” And Paul Ellis: “Me too. It definitely moved, in Shatha Tower.” Akbar Buneri claimed to have felt movement for almost a minute, writing: “I felt for like 45 seconds!”