The earthquake struck near the western shore of Lake Victoria outside the city of Bukoba. Images posted on social media showed the extensive damage in the city of 70,000 people where most of the casualties were reported.
Tremors were felt as far away as Uganda and Kenya. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is reporting the 5.7 magnitude quake was shallow, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), and struck at 15:27 local time (12:27 GMT). The shallow quake caused a lot of damage to homes in Bukoba, with many of them being caved in.
“This incident has caused a lot of damage,” Deodatus Kinawila, the district commissioner of Bukoba, told the BBC. “As we speak now, the number of injuries stands at 192 and 11 dead. Because we are still collecting the information it’s likely to go up. Even the number of injuries is likely to go up.”
The UPI is reporting that local police say that hospitals are overrun with the injured and work is underway to help people trapped beneath collapsed building. There are sure to be many more injuries and deaths as time go on.
The earthquake occurred along East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, a geological fault line that runs for about 6,000 kilometers (3,700 mi) from Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley in Asia to Mozambique in South Eastern Africa. Actually, major earthquakes are sort of rare, although a magnitude 6.0 quake struck near the town of Arusha, east of Bukoba in 2007.
