New Delhi, Feb. 18 -- A magnitude 4 earthquake struck India's Capital early on Monday morning, uprooting a decades-old tree in a marshy lake and sending panic-stricken residents into the streets, with citizen groups calling it a "warning bell" for the government.

The tremor, which hit at 5.36am with its epicentre beneath Jheel Park in Dhaula Kuan in southwest Delhi, lasted only a few seconds but was felt sharply across the National Capital Region (NCR) due to its shallow depth of 5km.

"The tremors were so sharp that for a moment I believed the house would collapse," said Om Prakash, 43, who runs a shop adjacent to the DDA park. "It ended abruptly by the time we could figure out anything. If the quake had lasted longer, everything would ...