At least 2 dead as strong quake shakes Mozambique

By Mateus Chale

MAPUTO (Reuters) – A strong earthquake rocked northern
Mozambique on Thursday, killing at least two people and sending
frightened residents into the streets across southern Africa as
aftershocks rolled through the region.

The earthquake, which news reports said was the largest to
hit the area in more than 100 years, was felt as far south as
Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa.

Mozambique’s mines minister said one person was killed and
at least 18 others injured when the quake struck just after
midnight (2200 GMT on Wednesday) about 160 km (100 miles)
southwest of Mozambique’s northern port of Beira.

Radio Mozambique reported that another person died,
apparently of a heart attack, at a local hospital as the quake
hit. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported at least three
significant aftershocks during the night.

Police in Beira denied persistent rumours that a building
had collapsed in the city, although local journalists said at
least one house had fallen down in the rural district where the
quake was centred.

Governor Raimundo Diomba of Manica province said officials
were fanning out into the countryside to assess damage, but
communications were difficult.

“We have no human or material damage to report yet, we sent
teams to make a detailed evaluation of the situation,” he said.

Minister of Mineral Resources Esperanza Bias, speaking to
reporters after a cabinet meeting convened to discuss the
earthquake, said one person died and 13 were injured in largely
rural Manica. Four more were injured in Beira, she said.

Bias said the government had asked emergency officials to
quickly draw up plans to deal with future quakes.

“Earthquakes are not a part of our disaster management
plan,” she said.

South African petrochemicals company Sasol said the quake
was felt at its natural gas fields in Mozambique but production
had not been disrupted and no damage had been found.

“We are checking that everything is in order but early
indications are that there was absolutely no damage,” said
Sasol spokesman Johann van Rheede.

FELT IN SOUTH AFRICA

In Durban, South Africa, witnesses described people running
into the streets. Similar scenes occurred in Maputo, where many
people spent the night in the open, and more than 1,000 km (620
miles) to the north in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, where people
fled their apartments after the tremors began.

In the Zimbabwean city of Mutare, about 270 km (168 miles)
west of Harare close to the Mozambique border, residents said
the quake jolted houses and apartment buildings but did not
appear to have caused widespread damage.

“It sounded like an explosion, but I haven’t heard of any
casualties,” said a local journalist contacted by telephone.

Mutare, a city of about one million in Zimbabwe’s
mountainous Eastern Highlands, is where President Robert Mugabe
is due to hold a major celebration on Saturday to mark his 82nd
birthday.

In the tiny kingdom of Swaziland, sandwiched between
Mozambique and South Africa, people also ran into the open
after the quake hit, witnesses said.

USGS experts said the region could expect more tremors.

“An earthquake of this size shakes the ground for quite a
distance away from its epicentre so we’re expecting that there
is damage from this earthquake,” said William Leith, a USGS
earthquake specialist.

“It’s a significant and unexpected earthquake in this
region,” he said by telephone from the USGS headquarters in
Reston, Virginia. “We’ll expect aftershocks from an earthquake
this large.”

(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka in Harare)