Sylhet school building damaged in earthquake abandoned

The Education Engineering Department (EED) has declared abandoned a building of Raja GC High School, which was damaged in an earthquake in Sylhet.

Kamran Bhaban, named after late mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, was declared abandoned on Tuesday afternoon following an inspection.

A tremor of 3.8 magnitude on the Richter scale was felt in Sylhet city on Monday at around 6:30pm, resulting in the two-storey building developing cracks at multiple spots, according to Md Abdul Mumit, headteacher of the school.

EED Executive Engineer Nazrul Hakim said the building was declared abandoned as a safety measure.

“The building is quite old and the foundation was not made in a way that would make it earthquake-resistant, which is why cracks have appeared [after the quake],” the engineer said.

He also mentioned that educational institutions currently under construction were resistant to seismic activities.

Also Read - 3.8 earthquake jolts Sylhet

Sylhet is located in the plate boundary area near the Dawki Fault, which is a thrust fault with a strike slip component linking the Sylhet Trough and the Shillong Plateau.

On May 29, the first tremor of magnitude 3 on the Richter scale was felt at 10:36am, followed by the aftershocks of 4.1 magnitude at 10:50am, 2.8 magnitude at 11:30am and 4 magnitude at 1:58pm. Two buildings had tilted in the city but no casualties were reported.

The next day, another tremor of magnitude 2.8 jolted Sylhet city.

Afterwards, the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) authorities carried out an inspection and shut down 25 at-risk residential buildings and markets of the city for 10 days.

The successive earthquakes have spread panic among locals, who are worried about a potential major quake occurring sometime. Many people living in high-rise buildings have left the city for their village homes.