DAR SALAAM – An earthquake of 5.7 magnitude has killed at least 11 people and injured 192 in northern Tanzania, the authorities say.
The quake was felt as far away as western Kenya and parts of Uganda, which share the waters of Lake Victoria. Tremors were also felt in Kigali, Rwanda.
The 11 who died in Tanzania were in brick structures in the town of Bukoba, said Augustine Olomi, regional police commander for the Kagera region.
“We currently have 11 people dead and more than 100 injured, several of whom have been hospitalised… rescue operations are ongoing,” Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district said by telephone.
Residents of the Tanzanian town of Bukoba, near the epicentre, had earlier told AFP that some houses there had caved in.
The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria.
“The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and the cupboards,” also said an AFP correspondent in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
