On 21st November, a powerful 5.5 magnitude earthquake caused fatalities and injuries to more than 300 people in central Bangladesh and killed at least eight people, according to the authorities and the media in the country. The capital of the country, Dhaka, experienced a tremor in its buildings, and panic among the population caused people to rush to the streets.

The quake occurred at 10:38 a.m. with the epicenter located in the Ghorashal region of Narsingdi district, approximately 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Dhaka. On its part, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that it was 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep.

According to Dhaka-based DBC Television, two dead children were identified. The deaths were predominantly because of collapsed walls and roofs. The railings of a building broke and killed three people in a street in Dhaka.

“The three had gone to a butcher shop in the Armanitola part of the Dhaka old city and had been taken to a hospital where they were declared dead,” Prothom Alo newspaper reported.

Mohammed Arif, who lives in the locality, said he went outside when he heard a great bang and felt that some bricks had collapsed, and he could see some people wounded, also.

Firefighters were sent to the areas by the Fire Service and Civil Defense department, where people had reported buildings tilting and a fire in the Dhaka area of Baridhara.

The number of patients admitted in the Gazipur district, just outside Dhaka, to the leading Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo was 252 people, who were primarily garment workers. There are hundreds of garment factories and other industrial facilities in the area.

When the quake struck, the workers attempted to stampede out of their factories, but this resulted in stampedes that left several injured, as the daily reported.

TV stations aired shots of anxious and weeping family members as victims were carried to hospitals, including the state-owned Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The quake saw Dhaka University students throwing themselves off the top floors of their dormitories.

The USGS asserts that even though northern and southeastern Bangladesh is a seismically active area due to interactions between the India and Eurasia plates, the central area of the country is of lower activity.

According to USGS, there have been only 14 earthquakes reported to have a magnitude of 5.5 and two magnitude 6 earthquakes within a 250-kilometer (156-mile) distance of the earthquake that happened on Friday.

Experts caution that Bangladesh, with a population of 170 million people, is unprepared for a greater magnitude quake that may result in much devastation. It is especially risky to the capital city, which is home to approximately 2.1 million people.