Two buildings in Dhaka’s Bangshal and Shonir Akhra have tilted while another at Shankhari Bazar has developed cracks after the pre-dawn earthquake on Monday.
Published : 04 Jan 2016, 11:06 AM
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The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale, caused cracks in buildings at several places in Bangladesh.
Fire Service Control Room official Brajen Kumar Sarkar said that men from the department rushed to Bangshal after the tilting of a six-storey building was reported.
Officials on the spot said that residents of the building were not evacuated as it did not pose a ‘major risk’.
“There was a four-inch gap between two buildings. The quake closed the gap. We do not see any major risk,” Fire Service Assistant Deputy Director Abdul Halim told bdnews24.com.
He said that the city authorities had been informed. “Engineers will examine the building.”
Panna Lal, a resident of the building, said that 60 families live in it.
“It’s a six storey building with ten units on each floor; it was constructed three years ago,” he told bdnews24.com.
Fire Service official Atiqul Alam Chowdhury said that they had been informed about the tilting of another six-storey building at Shonir Akhra on Monday noon.
After the building leaned on a nine-storey building under construction, the Dhaka South City Corporation officials evacuated people from it and sealed it with the help of police, according to Kadamtali Police Station OC Kazi Wazed Ali.
“The building had 20 families living in it... The building will be examined on Tuesday to decide whether it is safe for people to live there,” he said.
Police said that four families lived in the three storey-building, which has been declared abandoned by the city authorities.
Shankhari Bazar residents said the building was jointly owned by 22 people and the families of four of them are residing there. The others have left owing to the shabby condition of the structure.
“Other families have moved out, but we cannot afford it. We rushed out from the house when the quake struck. The fire service is telling us to move, but where will we go?” one of the residents Suman Sur told bdnews24.com.
The strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck at 5:05am Bangladesh Standard Time on Monday.
The US Geological Survey said its epicentre lay 29 kilometres west of Imphal, in India’s north-eastern state of Manipur and 352 kilometres east-northeast of Dhaka.