Guwahati, June 12 -- Reported by Roopak Goswami

Guwahati: The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck near Bhutan's capital Thimphu on June 7 was caused by movement along the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) system, underscoring the continuing seismic threat to the eastern Himalayas and Northeast India, according to a preliminary report by the National Centre for Seismology (NCS).

The earthquake occurred at 11:06 pm IST on June 7, with its epicentre located about 18 km north of Thimphu at a depth of 26 km. The tremor was widely felt across Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal and Bangladesh.

According to the NCS, waveform analysis showed a "pure thrust faulting" mechanism on a north-dipping fault plane, indicating that a sp...