Dhaka felt the ground shudder once again on Saturday evening, the latest in a string of tremors that have unsettled Bangladesh’s capital since Friday morning’s earthquake at Narsingdi, around 44 kms from the national capital.
Residents reported a brief jolt around 6.06 pm, prompting a renewed wave of anxiety across the city, Prothom Alo reported
Meteorologist Tariful Newaz Kabir told The Daily Star that officials were working to gather detailed information from the country’s seismic centre.
Earlier in the day, at 10:36 am, a 3.3-magnitude quake was felt, its epicentre located in Palash upazila of Narsingdi, according to leading Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo.
The fresh activity comes less than 24 hours after Friday’s stronger 5.7-magnitude earthquake, which struck at 10:38 am (10:08 am IST) near Madhabdi upazila of Narsingdi, just 13km east of Dhaka (please check this again). The US Geological Survey (USGS) placed the depth at 10km.
The impact was devastating: ten people, including two children, lost their lives, and more than a hundred others were injured, as authorities confirmed on Saturday.
In seismic terms, a magnitude 5 event is considered “strong”.
Across Bangladesh, social media feeds filled with accounts of swaying ceiling fans, trembling chandeliers and rattling windows as shockwaves rippled through homes and offices.
Friday’s tremors were also the most strongly felt in Calcutta in recent years, with a seismologist attributing the intensity to the city’s proximity to the epicentre.
The quake, measured at 5.7 by India’s National Centre for Seismology (NCS), sent mild waves across several districts, including Hooghly, Nadia, Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas. No casualties have been reported in Bengal.