At least five people have been killed, including one child, and more than 450 injured after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Bangladesh. The epicentre of the earthquake was close to the Narsingdi district, about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.
People rushed from residential buildings as buildings shook and makeshift structures collapsed. At least 10 students were injured in a stampede as they tried to leave Dhaka University on Friday.
We have never experienced an earthquake this powerful in the last five years, said the country's environmental adviser, Syeda Rizwana Hasan.
At least three people were killed when a railing and debris fell from a five-storey building in Dhaka's Armanitola area, deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said. Nitai Chandra De Sarkar, director of the department's monitoring division, reported 461 injuries nationwide, with 252 occurring in Gazipur, north of Dhaka.
Sarker emphasized, Our main task at the moment is to assess casualties and damage. We are not yet seeing the challenge of rescue from the rubble or debris management at that level.
Witness accounts were harrowing; one resident, Bengali Sadman Sakib, told Reuters, I have never felt such tremor in my 30 years of life. We were at the office when the furniture started shaking. We rushed down the stairs on the street and saw other people on the road already.
A student named Abdullah, who was sleeping during the earthquake, stated the whole building was shaking.
Tremors were also felt in eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh, but there have been no reports of major damage.
The earthquake even interrupted Ireland's second cricket test match in Bangladesh, pausing play as players and officials took temporary shelter. Ireland's head coach, Heinrich Malan, noted the uneasy feeling: Everything stood still for a couple of minutes and we got back to business, but we're thinking of everyone and hoping there wasn't too much damage done.\
People rushed from residential buildings as buildings shook and makeshift structures collapsed. At least 10 students were injured in a stampede as they tried to leave Dhaka University on Friday.
We have never experienced an earthquake this powerful in the last five years, said the country's environmental adviser, Syeda Rizwana Hasan.
At least three people were killed when a railing and debris fell from a five-storey building in Dhaka's Armanitola area, deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said. Nitai Chandra De Sarkar, director of the department's monitoring division, reported 461 injuries nationwide, with 252 occurring in Gazipur, north of Dhaka.
Sarker emphasized, Our main task at the moment is to assess casualties and damage. We are not yet seeing the challenge of rescue from the rubble or debris management at that level.
Witness accounts were harrowing; one resident, Bengali Sadman Sakib, told Reuters, I have never felt such tremor in my 30 years of life. We were at the office when the furniture started shaking. We rushed down the stairs on the street and saw other people on the road already.
A student named Abdullah, who was sleeping during the earthquake, stated the whole building was shaking.
Tremors were also felt in eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh, but there have been no reports of major damage.
The earthquake even interrupted Ireland's second cricket test match in Bangladesh, pausing play as players and officials took temporary shelter. Ireland's head coach, Heinrich Malan, noted the uneasy feeling: Everything stood still for a couple of minutes and we got back to business, but we're thinking of everyone and hoping there wasn't too much damage done.\
