Bangladesh hit by strong 5.7 quaker; four killed

At least four people including a newborn baby were killed as a massive earthquake of magnitude 57 jolted Dhaka and parts of the country on Friday damaging buildings causing fires at several places and sending panic among residentsThree people were killed in Dhaka while the fourth died in the suburban river port town of Narayanganj officials said as local media reported injuries to at least 50 people across the countryThe epicentre of the quake that struck at 1038 am local time was at Narsigndi on the northeastern outskirts of Dhaka at a depth of 10 kilometres Bangladeshs meteorology department said The place is around 13 kilometres east of the seismic centre in Dhakas Agargaon areaDhakas deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said quoting the fire service that at least three people were killed after a railing bamboo scaffolding and debris of a fivestorey building fell on them at Old Dhakas Armanitola areaA bystander was critically wounded at the scene in the crowded neighbourhood he saidSami confirmed that one of the deceased was a medical student who was there to buy meat along with his mother She is critically wounded requiring an emergency surgery he addedLocal media reports said one of the three dead was an eightyearold yet to be identified childThe fourth death was reported from Narayanganj where a newborn baby on her mothers lap died as they were walking near a wall that collapsed as the tremor hitIn Sutrapurs Swamibagh area also located on old Dhaka an eightstorey building was reported to have leaned against another structure following the earthquake while at Kalabagan area a sevenstorey building looked tilted though fire officials reported it remained structurally soundA fire broke out at a residence in Dhakas posh Baridhara area soon after the tremor hit but the firefighters could not immediately confirm if it was linked to the earthquakeAnother fire at a residential building was reported from the Gazaria area of suburban Munshiganj while the fire service responded immediately to douse the blazeThe Prothom Alo newspaper said the tremor wounded over 50 people in three districts around DhakaExperts have long said the risk of major quakes was high in Bangladesh because of its location on active tectonic plate boundaries with many of them saying a major earthquake is inevitable though it could be decades awayEarthquake expert Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary of Bangladesh University Engineering and Technology BUET said a tremor with the magnitude 6 could collapse most structures in the countryThis tremor on Friday is an alarm bell for Bangladesh Ansary saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever