Earthquake shatters African lakeside town

A POWERFUL earthquake in Lake Tanganyika yesterday toppled dozens of homes in a Congolese town on its shores, killing at least three people in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes.

Dr Jean-Donne Owali, who runs a clinic in the lakeside town of Kalemie, 35 miles from the epicentre, said that two people died from injuries following the quake. It had a magnitude of 6.8; quakes of magnitude 7 can cause widespread and heavy damage.

Dr Owali said he saw children at one clinic bleeding from head wounds suffered when their mud-and-thatch homes collapsed on them.

United Nations officials also reported that a child had died as a result of wounds sustained when a building collapsed.

"Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses," Dr Owali said. "Injured people have been sent to local hospitals."

A UN spokesman, Michel Bonnardeaux, said two houses and a church "crumbled". "There are three wounded," Mr Bonnardeaux said. "There was one death, a child who died of its wounds." He had said most of the casualties were struck by falling zinc and steel roofs.

Mr Bonnardeaux said damage was also reported in Kabalo, a Congolese town east of Kalemie, along the Lukuga River, and the final casualty toll was not clear last night.

The desperately poor region has camps housing tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.

The United States Geological Survey gave the earthquake a preliminary measurement of 6.8 and located the epicentre about six miles below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, between Congo and Tanzania. The quake was felt in Nairobi, about 600 miles from Lake Tanganyika, at about 4:20pm.

Workers in Nairobi city centre left their offices in panic. Tremors were also felt in Mombasa, on Kenya's coast.

"People fled their buildings, but we have no reports of casualties," said Elmon Mahawa, the regional commissioner for Kigoma, a Tanzanian town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, 90 miles from the epicentre. Kigoma is the main transport hub for western Tanzania.

The quake was felt as far away as southern Tanzanian towns bordering Zambia and Malawi, said Tanzania's meteorological chief, Mohamed Mhita.

There were also reports of tremors felt even further south, on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Celestin Mahinda, an official at Goma volcano observatory, said the quake might affect volcano activity.

Goma's Nyiragongo volcano erupted on 18 January, 2002, forcing 300,000 people to flee and destroying the homes of 120,000.