Four people died in the powerful earthquake on Thursday that forced thousands of panicked residents from their homes, Mozambique’s government and state radio reported on Friday.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck on Thursday at 12.19am local time with a magnitude of 7,5 — one capable of widespread, heavy damage — and was centred 225km south-west of Beira.
It shook buildings in Beira and Maputo as well as the Zimbabwean cities of Masvingo and Mutare. It awoke people hundreds of kilometres away in four Southern African countries, as far away as Durban on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast.
Thousands of residents fled their homes and slept in the open, fearful as five aftershocks rocked the region. Many slept on sidewalks in front of their homes for a second night on Thursday, saying they still were scared.
Mozambican and Zimbabwean authorities reported little damage, apparently because the epicentre was in sparsely populated farmlands near the border with Zimbabwe.
Esperanca Dias, Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources, on Friday said a woman died in the main port city of Beira, and state radio said a man who panicked and jumped from the third storey of a Beira hotel had died in hospital of abdomen and head injuries.
On Thursday, Diaz said a girl and a man had died in farm towns near Espungabera, the epicentre of the quake near the border with Zimbabwe.
State radio said 27 people were injured, five seriously. It said 160 homes were damaged. — Sapa-AP