At least 10 people died and more than a hundred were injured in a massive earthquake of 5.7 magnitude that hit Dhaka and many parts of the country on Friday. Due to this earthquake many buildings were damaged, fire broke out at many places and panic spread among the residents. Four victims died in the capital Dhaka, five in Narsingdi, the epicenter, and one in the suburban river port city of Narayanganj, officials said.

According to media reports, at least 100 workers in various units were injured while trying to escape from buildings during the earthquake in the industrial town on the outskirts of the capital Ghazipur.

Epicenter of earthquake in Narsingdi

The Meteorological Department said that the epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred at 10:38 am (local time), was located about 10 kilometers below the surface in Narsingdi, which is about 13 kilometers east of the epicenter in Aggargaon area of ​​Dhaka. At least three people died after railings, bamboo scaffolding and debris of a five-storey building in Armanitola area of ​​old Dhaka fell on them, Dhaka Deputy Commissioner of Police Malik Ahsan Uddin Sami said, quoting the fire service.

Earthquake took the lives of many people

Sami confirmed that one of the dead was a medical student who had gone with his mother to buy meat. He told that he is seriously injured and needs emergency surgery. An eight-year-old boy was also among the dead, while media quoted family members as saying that his injured father was also later declared dead by doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

According to reports, the dead in Dhaka also included a 50-year-old private security guard who was killed when a part of a building wall collapsed during the earthquake. The Narsingdi district administration said in a statement that five people were killed and at least four, including a boy and his father, were seriously injured.

many buildings tilted

A child died and his mother was seriously injured when a wall collapsed in suburban Narayanganj. Swamibagh area of ​​Sutrapur in Old Dhaka also reported an eight-storey building colliding with another building after the earthquake, while a seven-storey building in Kalabagan area was seen leaning, although fire officials said the structure of the building remained strong.

A house fire broke out in Dhaka’s posh Baridhara area soon after the earthquake, but firefighters could not immediately confirm whether it was earthquake-related. The news of fire in a residential building was received from Gazaria area of ​​suburban Munshiganj, where the fire department took immediate action and extinguished the fire.

Slight cracks appeared in some buildings

There have also been reports of minor cracks in some buildings in the capital and its surrounding areas, including Narsingdi. Reports indicate that the earthquake also damaged buildings and caused fires in suburban Munshiganj, north-western Rajshahi and south-eastern Chittagong. Experts have long said that Bangladesh is at high risk of major earthquakes due to its location on the boundaries of active tectonic plates. Many experts say a major earthquake is inevitable, although it may take decades.

Earthquake of such intensity near Dhaka

Meteorological Department officials said that an earthquake of such intensity had never occurred so close to Dhaka before and feared that if it had continued for just 5-7 seconds, the number of casualties and collapse of buildings could have increased manifold. Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) seismologist Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansari said that a magnitude 6 earthquake could destroy most of the buildings in the country. Ansari said that this earthquake that occurred on Friday is an alarm bell for Bangladesh.