Powerful earthquake rocks many parts of Zimbabwe

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 February 2006

A powerful earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale rocked many parts of Zimbabwe on Thursday morning sending many people from their beds scurrying for safety, many onto the streets.

The quake also struck large parts of Mozambique where it’s reported that at least two people have been killed. In Zimbabwe, no reports of casualties have been reported.

Mozambican state radio reported that the epicenter of the quake was near Espungabera, a small farming town in a remote and sparsely populated area near the border with Zimbabwe. Espungabera is about 10 km inside Mozambique near the border town of Mount Selinda.

Edward Kaseke, a resident of Chipinge which is about 50km from the epicentre of the quake said he was woken by violent shaking of his bed and thought thieves had broken into his house.

‘I thought some thief had stealthily walked into my house, but I was soon confronted by more violent tremors that threw cups and plates everywhere.

‘I rushed outside the house armed with a knife and saw my neighbour standing outside his house. We didn’t know what it was but the shaking lasted for about one and half minutes,’ said Kaseke.

Two more after-shocks shook the area, the first thirty minutes after the initial earthquake and the second an hour and half later. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the quake's epicenter was 530 km north of Mozambique's capital Maputo at 12:19 pm local time on Thursday morning.

A Zimbabwean based in the city of Beira, about 150 km north of the quake’s epicentre, said residents there also took to the streets after the tremor, the first many could remember in the coastal city.

The quake also shook buildings in Mutare and Masvingo, two Zimbabwean cities about 160 km from the epicenter. In the capital Harare, panic-stricken apartment dwellers poured into the streets. The quake was felt as far away as South Africa’s port city of Durban.