A powerful 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh on Friday morning, claiming 10 lives and injuring many.
The tremor, felt at 10:38am, triggered panic and structural damage across the capital and neighbouring districts.
In Old Dhaka’s Bangshal area, three pedestrians were killed when the railing of a five-storey building in Kosaituli collapsed. Police recovered the bodies and took them to hospital.
A 50-year-old security guard, Maksud, was killed when the railing of a building under construction collapsed in Madinabag, Mugda, Dhaka, following the earthquake that struck the city.
In Rupganj, Narayanganj, a 10-month-old girl, Fatema Khatun, died when a boundary wall of a neighbouring house fell on her. Her mother, 32-year-old Kulsum Begum, and passerby Jesmin Begum, 35, were injured and taken to US-Bangla Medical College Hospital. Police confirmed the incident in Dakkhinpara.
Four more deaths have been reported in Narsingdi.
In the Gabtali area of Chinishpur Union under Sadar Upazila, four people were injured when construction materials from an unfinished building fell on them. Two of the victims, who sustained severe head injuries, were transferred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Doctors later declared Hafez Omar, 8, dead upon arrival. His father, Delwar Hossain Ujjal, who had been in critical condition, succumbed to his injuries around 6:30pm.
The death was confirmed by Inspector Md Faruk, in-charge of the DMCH police outpost. He said the father and son, both injured in the earthquake, had been brought to the hospital from Narsingdi earlier in the afternoon.
In Palash Upazila, an elderly man named Kazem Ali Bhuiyan,75, from Malita West Para village in Charsindur Union, was trapped under the debris of his mud-house. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to the district hospital.
In the same upazila, Nasir Uddin,60, a resident of Islampara Noyapara village in Danga Union, was killed. According to local residents, he was running in panic from a crop field during the earthquake when he jumped off the road and died. Relatives did not take his body to a hospital.
In Shibpur Upazila, a man named Forkan, 40 from Gazikitala (East Para) village in Joynagar Union fell from a tree due to the tremors. He was immediately taken to Narsingdi District Hospital and was later referred to a hospital in Dhaka. He passed away en route.
Land cracks were also reported in Ghorashal Dairy Farm and Shibpur Baroi Algi.
The earthquake’s epicentre was seven kilometres from Ghorashal in Narsingdi, at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department reported the tremor at 5.7 on the Richter scale.
Witnesses said most injuries occurred as people rushed out of their homes in panic. Several buildings across Dhaka developed cracks and leaned during the quake. Authorities are assessing further damage.
