KOLKATA: It was apocalypse now for jittery Kolkatans at 12.42pm on Sunday, when the first aftershock hit. A major fire had been raging at the heritage Lighthouse cinema since mid-morning. To make matters worse, the skies opened up an hour later. It was a disaster movie...only, in this case, it was all too real.

Jhumur Majumder, 66, was attending a 'griha pravesh' at her sister's new apartment in Lansdowne when she started feeling dizzy. A sense of deja vu gripped her: was she imaging it, or was it yesterday once again?

"We were on the 11th floor, so the tremors felt even worse than on Saturday, when I was on the first floor when the earthquake had happened," she said. Sanjana Moitra was hanging out with school friends at an Elgin Road mall to drive away the terrible feeling that had seeped in on Saturday following the earthquake. But it turned out to be worse. "I suddenly felt that I was swaying from side to side," she said. "For a moment, I thought it was just me. But then we realized that it was a repeat of Saturday and immediately rushed for the stairs."

Metro services were suspended for 50 minutes to conduct checks on the tunnel. When service resumed at 1.30pm, there were few to board the trains. The few who did, and exited between Maidan and Chandni Chowk stations, were gripped with a sense of doom. "The tremors had shaken every one. On stepping out of the station, I saw the overcast skies and black smoke from the Lighthouse fire hanging low," said trader Ashok Bhatia."The streaks of lightning and thunder added to the foreboding."

Businessman Amit Khandelwal spotted the thick black smoke from the burning cinema as he was driving to a Park Street restaurant for brunch with his family. The sky was overcast and the smoke added to the atmosphere. And then he saw a frightening sight. "We suddenly saw people rushing outside from their homes as if they were being chased by ghosts. It was then that I realized that a tremor had happened again. I couldn't feel it since I was driving," he said.

More damages from Saturday's tremors were discovered on Sunday. A 60-inch pipeline that carries water from the Palta treatment plant to the Tallah reservoir was cracked at Chiriamore, Barrackpore. Though there are three alternative pipes, water supply will be affected till the pipe is repaired. The mayor, accompanied by KMC water department officials, visited the breach site on Sunday afternoon. KMC sources later said repairs could take a week.

Until then, water shortage is a distinct possibility in north and central Kolkata.

In the evening, deep cracks were detected at the CGO complex in Salt Lake, where much action on the Saradha investigation by the Enforcement Directorate had unfolded in the past few months.

The end to the day wasn't bright either, with the Kolkata Knight RidersRajasthan Royals match at Eden Gardens getting washed out. "It couldn't have been a worse Sunday. I have never looked forward to a Monday so much," said Debanjan Mitra, a KKR fan.