13 dead, 200 injured in Tanzania earthquake: official

Dar es Salaam, Sep 11 (AFP) At least 13 people were killedand 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitudeearthquake hit the country, authorities have said. "The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from192 injured to 203," said Deodatus Kinawilo, DistrictCommissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre ofthe quake. "For now, the situation is calm and under control," saidKinawilo yesterday, who was reached by telephone. "Some people have been discharged from hospital," he said."We don’t expect many more injuries. We’ll see tomorrow." Residents of Bukoba had said earlier that some housesthere had caved in, and Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera provincepolice chief in charge of the Bukoba district, had said"rescue operations are ongoing". The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25kilometres east of the north-western town of Nsunga on theborder of Lake Victoria, according to the US GeologicalSurvey. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes regionbut are almost always of low intensity. An AFP correspondent in Dar es Salaam whose mother’sfamily lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed. "My brother was driving around town, suddenly he heard theground shaking and people starting running around andbuildings collapsing," he said. The quake rattled the entire province of Kagera. Parts ofMwanza region further south also felt the quake but there wasno impact, he said. No damage had been reported in the economic capital, Dares Salaam, which is located some 1,400 kilometres southeast ofBukoba. "It’s safe in Dar but we are still worried about thesafety of our family," the correspondent added. "The regionalhospital is overwhelmed and can’t handle any more patients." "Emergency operations are poor and the government isn’tsaying anything," he said. The earthquake was felt as far away as Rwanda, Burundi,Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said. "The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and thecupboards," said a correspondent in the Ugandan capitalKampala. Journalists in Democratic Republic of Congo said it wasfelt, though faintly, in Bukavu in the east, but not in nearbyGoma or Lubumbashi. (AFP)CPS