Eight Killed, Hundreds Injured After 5.5 Magnitude Quake Strikes Bangladesh

At least eight people are dead and over 450 others are injured after a strong, 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday.

The earthquake's epicenter was located near the city of Narsingdi, around 16 miles away from the capital of Dhaka, at a depth of 6 miles. According to local reports, the shaking lasted for approximately 26 seconds after beginning at 10:38 am local time. While the shaking was not extremely strong, at a magnitude of 5.5, the quake still did significant damage, and shaking was felt as far as the Indian city of Kolkata– over 200 miles away.

Eight people have been confirmed dead due to failing infrastructure, with bricks toppling into roadways and roofs collapsing across Dhaka. Some buildings began falling over, endangering the people inside, and officials were also forced to respond to a fire in one neighborhood within Dhaka. Hundreds of people were injured, with stampedes and other incidents leading to various hospitalizations.

Unfortunately, infrastructure has long been an issue in Bangladesh. The nation continues to grapple with extremely outdated, poor infrastructure due to lack of funding and constant government instability, leading to decreased emergency response times and more deaths in times of crisis.

Additionally, Bangladesh lies on the intersection points of the major Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates along with the Burmese microplate, making it more vulnerable to tremors. While large earthquakes like yesterday's are relatively uncommon due to the constant sliding nature of the plates, tremors and occasional shaking happen often, and they do even more damage due to the country's lack of strong infrastructure.

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Image credit to Reuters