13 dead in Tanzania earthquake

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — At least 13 people were killed and 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country Saturday, local authorities told AFP.

“The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from 192 injured to 203,” said Deodatus Kinawilo, district commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicenter of the quake.

“For now, the situation is calm and under control,” said Kinawilo, who was reached by telephone.

“Some people have been discharged from hospital,” he told AFP. “We don’t expect many more injuries. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Residents of Bukoba had said earlier that some houses there had caved in, and Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district, had said “rescue operations are ongoing.”

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 25 kilometers east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria, according to the US Geological Survey.

An AFP correspondent in Dar es Salaam whose mother’s family lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed.

“My brother was driving around town, when suddenly he heard the ground shaking and people starting running around and buildings collapsing,” he said.

The quake rattled the entire province of Kagera. Parts of Mwanza region further south also felt the quake but there was no impact, he said.