'Earthquake' fear for UAE residents

People in northern emirates report hearing loud sounds

The wife of the Ruler of Sharjah has called on residents to avoid using the acronym RAK when speaking about the emirate.

Residents in the northern emirates feared an earthquake had struck the UAE after hearing an 'explosion' on Tuesday evening.

Concerned members of public took to social media after hearing loud noises in RAK and Umm Al Quwain.

One RAK resident said her windows started to shake due to the force of the tremors.

"At 8:40pm I heard an explosion sound and the windows started to shake for a second," she said.

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Residents on social media said they heard a 'very loud noise'.

The National Centre of Meteorology addressed the concerns on its official Twitter account.

The bureau confirmed an earthquake measuring 2.1 degrees on the Richter scale had been recorded in Iran shortly before 9pm on Tuesday.

But the statement said that "what the population felt in the north of the emirate had nothing to do with this tremor."

RAK Police and the emirate's Civil Defence said there were no reports of an explosion on Tuesday night. The bureau said it did not detect any tremors across the country.