Dhaka, Sep 21 (bdnews24.com)—Some 1, 30,000 people could be killed right away if an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude, originating from the Madhupur blind fault, strikes capital Dhaka in the daytime, a survey says.

The number of deaths will be a touch less, around 1,22,000, if the tremor takes place at 2am.

Nearly 26,000 people will require hospitalisation and a further 7,000 first aid, said the vulnerability assessment survey aimed to develop an earthquake contingency plan for Bangladesh.

A quake measuring 8 on Richter scale from the plate boundary fault-2, close to Chittagong, will kill around 69,900 people in the capital in the daytime, while 13,600 will need hospitalisation and 61,288 first aid.

The survey was conducted by Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (APDC) between Feb 2008 and Aug 2009 under the government's Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP).

APDC is a Thailand-based non-profit organisation implementing programmes to reduce the impact of disasters upon countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific.

It has been given mandate to provide technical supports in seismic hazard and risk assessment and to develop scenario-based contingency plan for the three major cities – Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet – extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.

The reasons behind the vulnerability are poor and congested construction, unplanned urbanisation and less awareness about earthquakes.

It said a strong earthquake in the Madhupur blind fault, Sylhet's Dauki fault, or in Chittagong's Plate Boundary fault-1, 2 & 3 in the Bay, will cause massive destructions to buildings, bridges and supply channels of utility services in the cities.

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