Quake damaged buildings as tremors rock South Africa
Graphic showing the epicentre of the magnitude 5.3 earthquake which struck South Africa, claimimg at least one life in Orkney North West.
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An earthquake shook buildings in South Africa’s biggest cities and most populous province on Tuesday, claimimg at least one life in a mining town of Orkney in the country’s North West province.
Tremors were felt in various parts of the country shortly after 12 p.m, shaking buildings, rattling windows and resulting in building evacuations.
The quake, one of South Africa’s largest magnitude earthquakes in the past decade, was felt as far Mozambique and Botswana.
The Council for Geoscience said its epicentre was in the Orkney region in North West province, after the United States Geological Survey earlier reported it being a 5.3-magnitude quake.
"It occurred in the Stilfontein, Klerksdorp and Orkney region (in the North West) and it was quite widely felt… as far as the Eastern Cape," said the Council for Geoscience’s Michelle Grobbelaar.
The magnitude earthquake centered 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the town of Orkney, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A 31 year-old male was found dead beneath some rubble after a wall fell on him, Luyanda Majija, spokeswoman for emergency services ER24, said by phone from Johannesburg.
Schools in Orkney were damaged while AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), the world’s third-biggest gold miner, evacuated about 3,300 people from two of its mines in the area. The Johannesburg-based company said 21 employees were being treated for minor injuries.
Grobbelaar said more tremors, aftershocks and possibly a second quake of the same magnitude were expected in the coming days, but it was unknown when.
The area around Johannesburg and to its south is home to some of the deepest gold mines in the world.
Reports of buildings being evacuated in Johannesburg, Durban and other cities were also seen on Twitter.
A handout community intensity map image made available by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center showing the area of the 5.3 magnitude earthquake centred on Orkney, South Africa.
