7.3 Nepal quake jolts Bangladesh, in phases

A strong 7.3 earthquake struck the already devastated Nepal this afternoon and rocked Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh – in phases.

US Geological Survey tagged the first earthquake at 7.3 and said it epicentred 18 kilometres southeast of Kodari in Nepal.

Reuters reports that the quake struck near the base camp for Mount Everest and was measured at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres.

At first, the quake was measured at 7.4 but was later revised down to 7.3 by the monitoring station.

The first wave struck at 1:54pm Bangladesh time, Mohammad Giasuddin, duty officer at Bangladesh Meteorological Department told The Daily Star.

“It was a major earthquake that struck Nepal. The epicenter has been tagged 611 kilometres northwest of Dhaka,” he said.

The second wave was felt some 35 minutes afterwards, he confirmed.

US Geological Survey tagged the second tremor at a strong 6.3, 33 kilometres north-northeast of Nepal’s Ramenchhap.

“It is an aftershock of the April 25 earthquake and such series of aftershocks can last upto 50 years,” expert Prof Mehedi Ahmed Ansari, of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology, told The Daily Star.

Over eight thousand people were killed and at least 17,800 injured in the calamity-level earthquake in Nepal on April 25 that defaced many parts of the country.