At least six dead as 5.7 quake jolts Dhaka, parts of Bangladesh

Dhaka: At least six people were killed and several injured as a massive earthquake of magnitude 5.7 jolted Dhaka and parts of the country on Friday, damaging

buildings, causing fires at several places and sending panic among residents.

Three 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 country.

The other two deaths were reported from Narsingdi, where the epicentre was located some 10 kilometres beneath the surface.

The epicentre of the quake that struck at 10:38 am (local time) was at Narsigndi on the northeastern outskirts of Dhaka at a depth of 10 kilometres, Bangladesh’s meteorology department said.

The place is around 13 kilometres east of the seismic centre in Dhaka’s Agargaon area.

Dhaka’s 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 five-storey building fell on them at Old Dhaka’s Armanitola area.

A bystander was critically wounded at the scene in the crowded neighbourhood, he said. Sami 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 added.