New Delhi [India], Feb 11: An earthquake causation an alert and high winds disrupted competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Sunday, as authorities cautioned of a severe freeze and urged fans to wrap up warm. After a bitterly cold first night of competition, a shallow 4.6-magnitude earthquake jolted the eastern portion of South Korea overnight, prompting warnings on mobile phones. Organisers gave assurances that the Games were at no risk from earthquakes, with venues built to withstand even strong tremors. Sunday’s quake was measured at magnitude 4.7 by the US Geological Survey and was about 260 kilometres away.

Temperatures are forecast to plunge to -14 degrees Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit) on Monday, will feel like a shivering -25C in the strong, mountainside wind. Sunday morning’s tremor follows a more intense quake off the coast of Taiwan last week, which caused a reported 14 casualties. There were 280 injured and three still missing as of Saturday.

Early on Sunday, ski officials were forced to postpone the showpiece men’s downhill until Thursday as buffeting winds made the high-speed slope too dangerous for competition. Later, the women’s slopestyle snowboarding also fell victim to the wind, as the qualifying session was scrapped with riders going straight into the final on Monday.