Aftershock shakes Bangladesh as earthquake death toll rises to 10

Bangladesh was shaken by a low-magnitude tremor a day after a serious earthquake struck the capital, Dhaka, killing at least 10 people.

Disaster management official Ishtiaqe Ahmed, who updated earlier tolls from Friday’s magnitude 5.5 earthquake, reported on Saturday that “a few hundred were hurt while the casualties have reached 10”.

Dhaka and the nearby districts experienced widespread destruction and panic as a result of Friday’s earthquake.

Another minor jolt was reported on Saturday at 10:36 a.m. (04:36 GMT), according to Omar Faruq of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

The meteorologist told AFP that Ashulia, north of the capital, was at the epicenter of the 3.3 tremor.

Aftershocks are common following powerful earthquakes, but some in Bangladesh are concerned about even greater disasters.

“I don’t feel safe yet because Ashulia experienced another jolt this morning. Shahnaj Parvin, who lives close to the epicenter of Friday’s earthquake and has never been in the same situation before, speculated that we might be the next.

She claimed that dozens of her neighborhood’s homes have developed cracks.

When the tremor struck, Parvin continued, “I was hanging my children’s clothes on the washing line.”

To coordinate relief and rescue operations, the government has activated Bangladesh’s emergency operation center.

The country of 170 million people are earthquake-prone due to Bangladesh’s geography, according to Rubayet Kabir of the Meteorological Department’s Earthquake Observation and Research Centre.

After any significant earthquake, Kabir predicted that there would be some minor tremors. Bangladesh has been vulnerable for a while, he told AFP, “but there hasn’t been a major earthquake in the last 100 years or more.”

A Dhaka resident named Shadman Sakif Islam told Al Jazeera on Friday that a “massive shake” started to occur as the earth shook as a result of “small ripples” he noticed in his coffee.

He continued, “My chair and the table started shaking wildly, and I spent ten to fifteen seconds staring blankly at what was happening.”

The resident continued, “I’ve never felt this in my entire life; I felt like going on a boat and riding massive waves one after another.”