A panic-stricken youth in Siliguri died after he slipped while scrambling down the stairs of his house with his dog during an earthquake on Wednesday, family members said.
Samrat Das, a BEd student who had come home on a holiday, lost consciousness after the fall and was declared brought dead at a private hospital.
The earthquake of magnitude 5.5 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre at Assam’s Kokrajhar, occurred at around 10.20 am.
Das, a resident of Santinagar locality, got tense as he felt the tremors, and tried to come out of the house with the dog, but got off-balance.
The body was sent to the North Bengal Medical College Hospital for post mortem.