10 killed as 5.7 magnitude quake jolts Bangladesh

Bangladesh awoke to terror on Friday morning as a powerful magnitude-5.7 earthquake ripped through Dhaka and several other regions, leaving at least 10 dead and more than 100 injured. Buildings shuddered, walls cracked open, fires erupted without warning, and the country’s crowded capital was swept by a wave of panic that lingered long after the tremors faded.

The quake struck at 10:38 am, its epicentre lying beneath Narsingdi — a mere 10 kilometres deep and just east of Dhaka’s seismic monitoring station in Agargaon. Its shallow power made it brutally felt on the surface, turning moments into mayhem.

In Old Dhaka’s Armanitola, tragedy unfolded within seconds: a railing, bamboo scaffolding, and chunks of a five-storey building crashed down, killing at least three people. Among them was a young medical student out with his mother to buy meat — she now fights for her life in emergency surgery.

Elsewhere in the capital, heartbreak multiplied. An eight-year-old boy and his father succumbed to injuries after a wall collapsed, while a 50-year-old security guard was crushed when a portion of a building gave way. Across Dhaka’s industrial outskirts in Gazipur, more than 100 factory workers were injured as thousands sprinted out of swaying structures.

Narsingdi, closest to the epicentre, bore the heaviest blow: five dead, several critically injured, and reports of buildings scarred by fresh cracks. In Narayanganj, a mother and her infant were buried under a collapsing wall — the child did not survive.

The quake left visible marks on Dhaka’s skyline. In the historic lanes of Sutrapur, an eight-storey building leaned precariously against its neighbour. In Kalabagan, authorities inspected a seven-storey block that appeared tilted, though engineers later found it structurally safe.

Fires flared soon after the shaking — one in Dhaka’s upscale Baridhara neighbourhood, another in Munshiganj — both swiftly tackled by firefighters. Minor structural damage was reported across Rajshahi, Chattogram, and other regions, hinting at the tremor’s wide reach.

Seismologists, long wary of Bangladesh’s precarious position atop active tectonic plates, warned that the nation had just witnessed a grave reminder of its vulnerability. Officials at the meteorology department noted that a quake of this strength, this close to Dhaka, is unprecedented. Had it lasted even five seconds more, they said, the death toll could have multiplied several times over.

“This tremor is an alarm bell for Bangladesh,” cautioned BUET earthquake expert Prof. Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, warning that a magnitude-6 event could bring widespread structural collapse.

Friday’s quake, though brief, has left Bangladesh with a sobering message — that the earth beneath remains restless, and the next jolt could be far more unforgiving.

With PTI inputs