At least a woman died yesterday as a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on Richter scale struck the country.
The epicentre of the earthquake was in neighbouring state Nepal.
The deceased was identified as Nurun Nahar, 62, from northern district of Panchagarh.
She suffered a heart attack from fear as the tremors shook the country.
Two earthquakes with the magnitudes of 7.3 and 6.4 hit Nepal yesterday. The earthquake was strongly felt in Dhaka too.
It sent people scurrying out of their flats and offices on to the streets.
According to Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the epicentre of the first one was 611km northwest of BMD Seismic Centre, Agargaon, Dhaka.
The first wave struck Bangladesh about 1:30pm while the later one, whose epicentre was 33km north-northeast of Nepal’s Ramenchhap, was felt 35 minutes later.
“It is an aftershock of the April 25 earthquake and such a series of aftershocks can last up to 50 years,” said Prof Mahbuba Nasreen of Dhaka University.
The April 25 earthquake killed over 8,000 people in Nepal and injured at least 17,800.
The human casualties could have been avoided if people had been made aware about the earthquake, she also said.
People do not know that during the earthquake they have to keep calm and take position under beams and they should get out of buildings or home after the shocks are over.
When people try to scamper out of buildings together it causes more human casualties, she added.
Replying to a question on the country’s preparedness during a major earthquake, she said, Bangladesh is not ready to face any major earthquake.
“We do not know what we really have to do to face an earthquake of massive scale.
“Even the country does not have any preparation at all to reduce the damage of such kind of natural disaster,” she added.
Citing the example of Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, she said the government had taken several days to complete the rescue operation as well as remove the debris of the collapsed site.
According to statistics of Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the last major earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5 on the Richter scale hit the region in 1950.
The epicentre of that earthquake was in Assam, Himalayas.
In 1918, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake had struck the region. The epicentre of which was Srimangal of Bangladesh.
To avoid huge casualties at the time of such major earthquakes, Prof Nasreen thinks, the large scale campaign to make people aware is very essential.
She said the government included the awareness building lessons on earthquake in the primary level education in 2013 which will definitely help them stay calm and save themselves from the disaster.
