According to agency reports, at least nine people were killed and nearly 200 injured. Attempts to rescue people trapped under rubble were hampered by snapped power and telecommunication links. AFP said five people were killed in India and three in Bangladesh.
The USGS has raised its assessment alert for casualties and damage to orange, meaning there is a 33% chance of between 100 and 1,000 fatalities.
Residents of Imphal said people fled their homes as the pre-dawn quake shook buildings. Air services were normal, although a boundary wall collapsed, and a crack appeared in the terminal building, said Thanglian, who works there.
Some people criticized what they called the authorities' slow response, saying that although the army had begun to clear debris, it appeared to be short of heavy equipment.
"We haven't seen any help from the government side," said disaster volunteer worker Kangujam. "The government has not given us any information."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Monday morning, "Had a telephone conversation with Assam CM Tarun Gogoi on the earthquake in the state and the region. Spoke to Rajnathji (home minister Rajnath Singh) who is in Assam, on the situation arising due to earthquake and asked him to oversee the situation."
Modi also spoke to Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki.
Strong tremors were felt in Kolkata and Bangladesh. The earthquake occurred as the result of strike slip faulting in the complex plate boundary region between India and the Eurasia plate in southeast Asia, according to the USGS. The US agency said that in the region of the earthquake, the India plate is moving towards the north-northeast with respect to Eurasia at a velocity of approximately 48 mm/year.
"Five people are confirmed dead and 33 have been injured in Imphal. A six-storey building in the capital was partially damaged and some small structures have also developed cracks," Anurag Gupta of the National Disaster Management Authority told AFP.
An official at one of the main hospitals in Imphal however said more than 50 people had been admitted since the quake with head injuries and limb fractures.
Imphal resident Deepak Shijagurumayum whose house was severely damaged described scenes of chaos after the quake.
"Almost everyone was asleep when it struck and were thrown out of their beds," Shijagurumayum said by phone.
"People were crying and praying in the streets and in open spaces. Hundreds remained outdoors for several hours fearing aftershocks."
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said buildings had collapsed near the epicentre and the electricity supply had been cut in parts of Manipur.
Nearly 60 victims were being treated for their injuries in hospitals in Bangladesh, where the earthquake triggered panic on the streets of major cities.
One 23-year-old Bangladeshi man died after suffering a stroke when he ran out of his house, while another two people--a farmer and a university official--died of heart attacks, police said.
One of the wounded was a university student who jumped from a fourth-floor balcony and was in a critical condition.
There were similar scenes in the northeast Guwahati, where residents were said to be in a state of shock after being woken by the shaking.
The tremors were felt as far away as Kolkata some 600 kilometres away in West Bengal, where buildings shook.
"Many people were seen coming out of their homes in panic," said local resident Rabin Dev.
Northeast India is prone to earthquakes, with the last devastating quake to hit the region killing more than 100 people and causing extensive damage in Sikkim in 2011.
In 1950, dozens of villages were swallowed in a string of disasters generated by a powerful earthquake whose epicentre was in Tibet but which caused the greatest destruction to India's Assam state.
More than 1,500 people died in the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.6, and its disastrous aftermath of landslides and floods.
There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Myanmar side of the border, a remote and sparsely populated area that suffered widespread damage this summer from landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains.
Reuters, PTI and AFP contributed to this story.
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