The quake occurred at 23:15 (14:15 GMT) at a depth of 50km (31mi), about 80km off the coast of the Aomori region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It prompted tsunami warnings which have now been lifted, while waves of 70cm (27in) were seen.

Some train services have been suspended and thousands of homes have been left without power as a result.

Authorities have also warned that a stronger tremor could occur in the coming days – urging the public to remain on high alert for at least a week, according to local media reports.

Addressing citizens affected by the earthquake, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said: “Reconfirm your daily earthquake preparedness, such as ensuring that you secure furniture, and prepare to evacuate immediately if you feel shaking.”

Orders were issued for about 90,000 residents to evacuate, according to Reuters news agency.

The Aomori prefectural government said around 2,700 homes have been left without power. East Japan Railway has also suspended some services along the north-eastern coast.

The Japanese government has set up a response office within the prime minister’s crisis management centre and convened an emergency team, chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara has said.

“We are making every effort to assess the damage and implement emergency disaster response measures, including rescue and relief operations,” he added.

Following the tremors, Japanese electric company Tohoku Electric Power said no irregularities were reported at its Higashidori and Onagawa nuclear power plants as a result of the quake, Tohoku Electric Power said.

None were detected either at the disabled Fukushima nuclear power station site, the Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Fukushima was damaged when a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off the country’s eastern coast on 11 March 2011.

That quake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, triggered a tsunami which swept over the main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.

The epicentre of the earthquake was close to the Narsingdi district, about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

People rushed from residential buildings as buildings shook and makeshift structures collapsed. At least 10 students were injured in a stampede as they tried to leave Dhaka University on Friday.

“We have never experienced an earthquake this powerful in the last five years,” said the country’s environmental adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

At least three people were killed when a railing and debris fell from a five-storey building in Dhaka’s Armanitola area, deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said.

Nitai Chandra De Sarkar, director of the department’s monitoring division, said 461 people have been reported injured across the country, including 252 in the Gazipur district, north of Dhaka.

Sarker told the BBC: “Our main task at the moment is to assess casualties and damage. We are not yet seeing the challenge of rescue from the rubble or debris management at that level.”

Bengali Sadman Sakib told Reuters news agency: “I have never felt such tremor in my 30 years of life. We were at the office when the furniture started shaking.

“We rushed down the stairs on the street and saw other people on the road already.”

A student called Abdullah, who was sleeping at the time of the earthquake, told Reuters the “whole building was shaking”.

Tremors were felt in eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh, but there were no reports of major damage.

The earthquake caused Ireland’s second cricket test match in Bangladesh to stop temporarily.

Coaches and players not involved gathered at the boundary, while those in the stands took shelter. The game was stopped for three minutes but play soon resumed.

Ireland’s head coach Heinrich Malan said: “I’ve been involved in a couple of earthquakes from my time living in New Zealand.

“It’s never a nice feeling and you’re trying to understand what is happening in the moment around you, but also the bigger impacts about where the earthquake struck.

“Everything stood still for a couple of minutes and we got back to business, but we’re thinking of everyone and hoping there wasn’t too much damage done.”

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Early reports showed 30 dead in a single village, the health ministry said, but added that accurate casualty figures had yet to be gathered in an area of scattered hamlets with a long history of earthquakes and flooding.

“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman said in a statement.

Hundreds of injured were taken to the hospital, said Najibullah Hanif, the provincial information head, with figures likely to rise as reports arrived from remote areas with few roads.

Rescuers were working in several districts of the mountainous province where the midnight quake hit at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), to level homes of mud and stone on the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, officials said.

Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

A series of earthquakes in its west killed more than 1,000 people last year, underscoring the vulnerability of one of the world’s poorest countries to natural disasters.

Source: Reuters

At least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 injured by the the 7.7 magnitude quake struck near Mandalay today, state-run MRTV said on the Telegram.

Preliminary reports confirmed at least eight people are dead in Bangkok, where a high-rise under construction collapsed, a Thai government official has confirmed.

The full extent of death, injury and destruction across the region is not immediately clear, with officials warning that thousands are feared dead.

‘The death toll and injuries are expected to rise,’ Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military government, said in a televised speech this evening.

The total number of fatalities is ‘most likely to be in the range 10,000-100,000’, scientists have warned, citing the United States Geological Survey ‘PAGER’ forecast.

The 7.7 magnitude quake, with an epicentre near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.

The quake also hit Thailand, where rescuers in the capital Bangkok were searching in the rubble of a tower block that had been under construction and collapsed.

There were 117 people missing and five dead following the building collapse, according to the rescue operation. Crews are still pulling victims from the rubble.

Myanmar’s government has said that blood is in high demand in the hardest-hit areas.

The quake brought down multiple buildings, including the Ma Soe Yane monastery, one of the largest in Manadalay, and damaged the former royal palace.

Christian Aid said its partners and colleagues on the ground reported that a dam burst in the city, causing water levels to rise in the lowland areas in the area.

A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity group told Reuters that it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmanar, near the capital city of Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.

‘This 60 is only from my charity group and only at Pyinmanar town,’ he said.

Officials at a major hospital in Naypyidaw declared it a ‘mass casualty area’, with the death toll expected to rise after buildings fell and debris scattered.

‘I haven’t seen (something) like this before. We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted now,’ a doctor told the AFP news agency.

Myanmar’s military junta is locked in a struggle to put down insurgents fighting its rule, a situation that is likely to complicate the rescue and relief operation.

Professor Ian Main, Personal Chair in Seismology and Rock Physics, School of GeoSciences, at the University of Edinburgh said: ‘The damage is likely to be very severe near the epicentre- based on the estimated intensity of ground shaking above, and maps of population density and vulnerability of buildings.

The force caused a mosque in Mandalay to collapse, with at least ten worshippers reported to have been killed.

More than 20 children are also believed to be trapped in a destroyed school in Taungoo, central Myanmar.

Shocking footage showed workers fleeing in neighbouring Thailand as a 30-storey high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed around them.

At least three people were killed as the skyscraper toppled. Local authorities said that dozens of workers have been rescued from the site, though 90 are still missing.

The earthquake’s epicentre was measured in North Hollywood, just miles from where the awards ceremony was hosted at the Dolby Theatre.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake struck shortly after 22:00 local time as celebrities were gathering at the popular Vanity Fair afterparty.

Those in the area reported a sudden jolt of energy, with some screaming and seeing high-rise buildings wobbling like jelly.

The US Geological Survey (USGS), which tracks such events, said the earthquake was felt miles across Los Angeles.

There was no tsunami alert issued as a result of the relatively minor earthquake.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said that the earthquake was felt across downtown Los Angeles but the agency was not entering into “Earthquake Mode” over the incident.

For stronger earthquakes, first responders and officials do assessments of the area to ensure there is no structural damage to buildings and infrastructure.

The quake is among about 40 that have hit Southern California since the start of March – though nearly all of these were magnitude 1 earthquakes that aren’t typically felt by residents, according to USGS data reviewed by the BBC.

Last month, there was a magnitude 3.7 earthquake that struck the nearby Malibu area. In December, a strong magnitude 7 earthquake jolted northern California and caused a short tsunami alert for those in northern California and southern Oregon.

BBC correspondents covering the Academy Awards in the heart of Hollywood reported fierce shaking and even some screams as the sudden jolt scared visitors. To some, it sounded like a bomb went off with the rumble.

One resident called it the biggest earthquake she’d felt and was surprised it was only a magnitude 3.9. “I felt that in my bones,” she remarked.

The BBC’s Emma Vardy said she was retouching her makeup for some final Oscars filming when the quake struck. Her rhinestone chandelier earrings wobbled in the mirror and she realised the high-rise she was in was shaking.

“I have felt a lot of quakes over the past two years in Los Angeles but currently, I am on the 15th floor of our media centre in Hollywood,” she remarked. “Feeling a building of that size move around like jelly is quite an experience.”

The strongest of the latest tremors, which the United States Geological Survey measured at a magnitude of 6.1, hit at about 2.30am (18:30 GMT) followed minutes later by a 6.0 tremor.

Taipei’s Central Weather Administration put them at 6.0 and 6.3, respectively.

The seismic activity, which was centred around Hualien on the east coast, caused buildings across large parts of northern, eastern and western Taiwan to shake throughout the night. There were no reports of casualties.

Office worker Kevin Lin, who lives in the capital Taipei, told the AFP news agency that the quake woke him.

“I was too scared to move and stayed in bed,” the 53-year-old said.

At about 8am (00:00 GMT), a 5.8-magnitude tremor shook the capital as commuters made their way to work.

The mountainous county of Hualien, about 150km (93 miles) from Taipei, was the epicentre of a magnitude-7.2 quake that struck the island on April 3, severely damaging buildings in Hualien City and triggering landslides in the surrounding countryside.

At least 14 people were killed, and there have been more than 1,100 aftershocks.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said the latest cluster of earthquakes were also aftershocks.

Seismological Centre Director Wu Chien-fu told reporters that the quakes were a “concentrated release of energy” and that more could be expected, although perhaps not as strong.

In Hualien, the government announced that schools and offices would remain closed on Tuesday due to the continuous aftershocks.

Buildings that partially collapsed in the April 3 quake, including the Full Hotel and the nearby Tong Shuai Building, were further damaged. Both were empty and have already been marked for demolition.

The April 3 quake was the most serious in Taiwan in 25 years, but the toll was relatively contained thanks to widespread public awareness campaigns and stricter building standards.

The island of 23 million people lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is no stranger to powerful earthquakes.

The USGS measured the quake as a 4.8 temblor with its epicenter near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. It struck a little before 10:30 a.m. ET.

There have been no initial reports of major damage.

James Pittinger, mayor of Lebanon, New Jersey, called the earthquake “the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. 

In an interview with MSNBC, he said he had not received reports of any significant damage so far, but added that the shaking caused his dog to run for cover and objects to fall off his shelves.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the quake was felt across the state.

“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” she wrote on X.

New York City Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy said that there were no reports of major impacts in the city following the earthquake.

Ground stops were issued at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.

The Port Authority Transit Corp., which operates a rapid transit route between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, suspended service in the aftermath of the quake.

“Crews will inspect the integrity of the line out of an abundance of caution,” PATCO said in an update on X. “Once inspection is complete, service will resume. No timeframe. Updates to follow.”

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that there had been no impact on its service but that teams will be inspecting train lines. New Jersey Transit alerted riders of 20-minute delays due to bridge inspections following the earthquake.

While earthquakes in the northeast U.S. are rare, Buffalo, New York, was struck by a 3.8-magnitude quake in February 2023 — the strongest recorded in the area in 40 years.

A 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck the tristate area in 2017, centered near Little Creek, Delaware, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And before that, a 5.8-magnitude quake shook central Virginia in 2011, and was felt across much of the East Coast, forcing hundreds of thousands people to evacuate buildings in New York, Washington and other cities.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a post on X that the state has activated its emergency operations center and asked the public not to call 911 unless they are experiencing an emergency.

The 6.3-magnitude quake struck Saturday morning in Herat province, a barren landscape dotted with mud brick homes.

Villagers are still using shovels and bare hands to search for the missing – more than 500 people, the UN says.

Aid, delayed by blocked routes and communication lines being down, only started to trickle in on Monday.

The quake hit Zindajan, a rural district some 40km (25 miles) from Herat city, where “100% of homes are estimated to have been completely destroyed,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Images from the villages show entire houses, which were too fragile to withstand such a quake, reduced to rubble.

“We came home and saw there was nothing left. Everything had turned to mud,” one resident Nek Mohammad told AFP news agency. “We started to dig with shovels and whatever we had to rescue women and children from the rubble.”

The Taliban government and aid agencies initially struggled to estimate the death toll, or how many remained missing. It’s unlikely officials had population records for such remote villages.

The area is also home to communities displaced by war and drought, making it difficult for the local administration to know exactly how many people have been living there.

Ill-equipped hospitals have been struggling to accommodate the injured, who now number more than 1,600. Many of them were sent to the Herat Regional Hospital, where teams from the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have been since Saturday.

“Fortunately, most of the patients arriving are non-emergency cases,” says Prue Coakley, the acting country representative for MSF in Afghanistan. “However, many of them do not have homes to return to, that is why many of them are remaining in the hospital while authorities look for alternative places for them to stay.”

She added that a team focused on paediatric patients had been sent to the hospital in Herat. The UN says a majority of the quake survivors who are being treated are women and children, while doctors tell the BBC women and children also account for many of the dead.

The Taliban government has said quake survivors are in urgent need of food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents for shelter. Several aid agencies have dispatched help, including the Afghan Red Cross Society, MSF, World Food Programme and Unicef. But the agencies say the cash-strapped country needs more aid.

Afghanistan has been reeling from an economic crisis since the Taliban takeover in 2021, when aid given directly to the government was stopped.

Few countries have pledged money since Saturday’s quake. China’s Red Cross Society has offered $200,000 (£164,220) in emergency cash aid, Chinese media reported.

Neighbouring Pakistan has said it is in contact with Afghan officials and will “extend all possible support to the recovery effort.”

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes – especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range as it lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In June last year, the province of Paktika was hit by a 5.9 magnitude quake which killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

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Friday night’s 6.8-magnitude quake has killed thousands and injured at least 2,059 people – 1,404 critically – with the death toll expected to rise.

The team was due to play an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia on Saturday in Agadir, 205km (127 miles) south-west of Marrakesh, but the game was cancelled.

Players and staff of the Atlas Lions entered a blood transfusion centre to shouts and cheers, a video posted to social media shows. Players smiled and gave the thumbs up as they sat in chairs donating blood in their football kit.

Amal Duraid, the director of the Regional Centre for Blood Transfusion in Casablanca, launched an urgent appeal for blood donations to help the people injured by the earthquake.

“I appeal to all citizens across Morocco to go to the nearest centres to donate blood, given that the death toll from the earthquake is on the rise,” he said.

A number of residents gathered to donate blood in several cities, including Marrakesh and Rabat.

Meanwhile, soldiers and workers brought water and supplies to mountain villages in ruins on Sunday.

Those left homeless by the destruction slept outside on Saturday, in the streets of the ancient city of Marrakech or under makeshift canopies in Atlas Mountain towns like Moulay Brahim.

The worst destruction is in small, rural communities that are hard for rescuers to reach because of the mountainous terrain.

Flags were lowered across Morocco, as King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning starting on Sunday.

The army mobilised specialised search and rescue teams, and the king ordered water, food rations and shelter to be provided to those who had lost their homes.

The king called for mosques across the kingdom to hold prayers on Sunday for the victims, many of whom were buried on Saturday amid the frenzy of rescue work nearby.

Some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government was not allowing more international help.

The UN said it had a team in Morocco coordinating with authorities there about how international partners could provide support.

The UN estimated more than 300,000 people have been affected in Marrakech and the surrounding area.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11.11 pm, with shaking that lasted several seconds.

The agency added that a magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.

The authority claims that the current area occupied by the central bank is earthquake-prone and that the most recent earthquake in the country occurred near the Bank of Ghana enclave.

In an interview with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Isaac Mwinbelle, Acting Director-General of the Geological Survey Authority (GSSA), justified the relocation of the Bank of Ghana facility.

“The latest one [earthquake], which was the 10th of March this year, if you look at the epicentre, it was close to Jamestown, meaning that it’s moving towards the current location of the Bank of Ghana.”

“There are fault zones in these areas, but they have not produced any substantial earth tremor, but it doesn’t mean that there cannot be an earth tremor along those fault lines. For that matter, if the Bank of Ghana is being proactive by doing an assessment to find out whether the current location is suitable for a Central Bank or not, I think it is a plus for them because they must ensure the safety of the bank, the safety of the staff, as well as the safety of whatever is contained in there”, he said.

The Bank of Ghana has defended the construction of a new headquarters by claiming that its current headquarters, which was built in the 1960s, is no longer fit for purpose.

This came after accusations by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the BoG intends to build a new headquarters at an alleged cost of $250 million.

In an attempt to clear the air, the central bank claimed that a structural integrity assessment of the existing office indicated that the building did not meet the full complement of excess strength required for a building to be considered safe for use.

The BoG added that in the event of a worst-case scenario involving gravity and wind loading, such as unusually strong winds, the building could be significantly affected.

This explanation by the BoG has been welcomed by the GSSA boss, who believes that the new site designated for the new Bank of Ghana office is a good choice.

“So, if you look at the earthquake that have occurred, they have always occurred off the coastline that is into the sea and by approximation, Ridge is much further away from the coastline which is from the offshore than the current location, which is the High Street area. So, in terms of lateral displacement, the current location, Ridge location might be much safer when it comes to earth tremors, because the closer the structure to the epicentre, the more the devastating that it will cause as compared to when it’s further away from the epicentre, we may likely experience much lower devastation on the structure.”

He added that the new location is much safer and that quick action is needed to avert any potential devastation.

“So now that is why before you even construct a building, if you look at the GGSA Act, it mandates us to conduct site or ground investigation to determine whether this area that you are going to construct your structure on has these active fault lines or have fault lines which can affect the structural integrity of the building, and for that matter, for the old structure that was there.

“I am unable to tell whether such ground investigation or site investigation was properly conducted prior to the construction of that particular building, but for the new site, because of the recent things, all these have been factored in by the risk department of the Bank, and I’m sure if constructed, it might serve as a better purpose, and it will be constructed with reinforcement which should be able to withstand any as tremors or earthquakes that may occur because they would have factored in the ground acceleration and therefore, it should be much more safer.”

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The coach of Atsu’s Turkish club, Hatayspor, said earlier this week that the midfielder had not been found despite initial reports suggesting he had been rescued from the rubble.

A 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing nearly 22 000 people in one of the region’s worst disasters for a century.

Atsu, 31, who played under Howe on loan at Bournemouth before a five-year spell at Newcastle, has still not been found in the devastated region.

Asked on Friday about Atsu, who joined Hatayspor last year, Howe said: “It’s hugely worrying. I really, really enjoyed working with Christian, a great lad, great player. Our thoughts are with him and his family.

“We hope for some good news, we hope he’s OK, but we’re really concerned for him and his welfare this week.”

Howe said the conflicting stories about Atsu’s safety following the disaster had made it even harder to handle such a distressing situation.

“It’s been very tough,” he said. “I can’t imagine how his family are feeling. But from the bottom of our hearts, we wish him well and hope there’s a positive ending.”

In a statement, Italy’s FIGC said the silence would be observed across “every league with games scheduled for the weekend (including matches on Monday)”.

“The world of football offers its support to the victims of the earthquake. We can’t be indifferent in the face of such a tragedy,” said FIGC president Gabriele Gravina.

The Premier League, LaLiga in Spain, France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga will also hold a minute’s silence before matches.

A 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing nearly 22 000 people in one of the region’s worst disasters for a century.

The former Chelsea and Newcastle player Christian Atsu is still missing after the Ghanaian, who plays for Turkish club Hatayspor, was caught up in the quake.

The Cirita Cafe in Jayapura, Papua crumbled as the magnitude 5.5 quake rocked the eastern province on the afternoon of Thursday 9 February.

Four women were unable to flee the collapsed building in time and were buried under the rubble. 

They were found lifeless in the Jayapura Bay by responders.

‘A café collapsed and four people died there. It fell into the sea,’ Asep Khalid, head of the Jayapura disaster mitigation agency, said in a press release.

Putri Kurita, 30, bolted for the exit at another restaurant fearing it would collapse.

‘I was having lunch when things suddenly swayed, the jolt got much stronger,’ she told AFP.

Other infrastructure, including the Jayapura Mall, were reported to have been damaged. 

A number of residents were also injured.

The country’s geophysics agency said several aftershocks occurred after the main shock, which lasted a few seconds.

Video clips from the scene show locals stretchered out around the hospital, which was also reportedly damaged in the event.

A car showroom is also shown with broken window frames and glass shattered on the floor. 

Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said the earthquake struck at 1:28 pm local time on Thursday, around one kilometre southwest of Jayapura at a depth of ten kilometres.

It comes just days after an earthquake in Turkey killed at least 15,000 people across the country and in neighbouring Syria.

Agencies initially reported slightly different magnitudes for the earthquake.

The country’s meteorological agency put the magnitude at 5.2. 

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported 5.5.

The US Geological Survey claimed a magnitude of 5.1. 

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake also hit under the Banda Sea near Indonesia on Tuesday, felt in Darwin, Australia.

It damaged a handful of local buildings and injured one in Indonesia.

Indonesia was also hit by a 6.2 magnitude undersea earthquake on 16 January.

The archipelago sits on the ‘Ring of Fire’ arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, and is prone to earthquakes.

Since 2 January 2023, there have been 1,079 earthquakes around Jayapura, with 132 felt by residents, according to Indonesia’s geophysics agency, BMKG.

On Tuesday, reports emerged from the Turkish media that the former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger was rescued after 26 hours of search, with only foot injuries and has been taken to the hospital.

However, Kahveci, who is the team doctor of the club Atsu plays for, on Wednesday, said both the player and sporting director, Taner Savut are still yet to be found.

“When we heard the news that he was taken to Dortyol Hospital, we especially went and looked, but it was not there. At the moment, we accept that [the sporting director] Taner Savut and Christian Atsu were not found, unfortunate,” he said.

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Atsu joined Hatayspor last summer following a short spell with Saudi Arabian topflight side Al Raed.

The former Newcastle United winger scored in Hatayspor’s last game on Sunday and even took to Twitter to revel in grabbing the winner.

Atsu is famously remembered for winning the Best Player at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] in Equatorial Guinea.

Meanwhile, fellow Ghana international and close friend of Atsu, Mubarak Wakaso, has also confirmed on Wednesday morning that Atsu is currently unaccounted for.

The 31-year-old winger was trapped in the rubble after a devastating earthquake on Monday.

Atsu, together with Hatayspor’s sporting director, Taner Savut, were all trapped in the rubble.

After hours of search, the former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger has been finally found alive but suffered foot injuries with difficulty breathing.

A statement from the GFA said it has received an update that the footballer is currently receiving treatment at a hospital.

The West African country’s football governing body also called on all Ghanaians to keep Atsu in their prayers.

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“Update: We’ve received some positive news that Christian Atsu has been successfully rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building and is receiving treatment. Let’s continue to pray for Christian,” the GFA posted on its Twitter page.

Atsu joined Hatayspor last summer following a short spell with Saudi Arabian topflight side Al Raed.

He scored in Hatayspor’s last game on Sunday and even took to Twitter to revel in grabbing the winner.

Atsu is famously remembered for winning the Best Player at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON].

The BBC’S Focus on Africa radio has spoken to several Ghanaian students who are living in nearby cities which were affected by the earthquake.

Ibrahim, a Ghanaian student living in Konya, together with his partner and one-week-old baby, says that he is thankful to be alive after the earthquake struck.

“It was in the dawn when we heard the shaking of the land. We tried to gather the family and take them out of the house. I feel very sad and very sorry.”

Focus on Africa also spoke to Ghanaian student Nasser Abdallah, who is studying in Adana, 150 miles (241km) from Gazientep – the city closest to the epicentre.

“Early in the morning I was working on my laptop and all of a sudden I saw my laptop started to shake. It started from a mild shake to a very heavy shake.

“We have been told that no one should enter their house until further notice.”

Some in Chengdu say they were told to stay inside through a 6.6-magnitude earthquake on Monday that has killed at least 65 people.

Those that ran out say they found the exits shut due to Covid restrictions.

Chengdu, home to 21 million people, is currently under strict lockdown rules.

China has a so-called zero Covid-19 policy, meaning that lockdowns are routinely imposed in communities when cases of the virus are detected.

In some instances, apartment buildings where at least one person has tested positive for Covid have been designated “sealed areas” – where residents are forbidden from setting foot outside their homes whether or not they have the virus.

Videos shared on Douyin, China’s TikTok platform, show panicked residents behind chained gates, shouting to be let out.

In one, a man swears at security guard, rattling what appears to be his apartment gates and trying to open it, shouting: “Hurry up, open the door, it’s an earthquake!” In response, the guards say: “It’s over, the earthquake’s already over.”

Another video claims to be an audio recording of a loudspeaker message that said: “Go back home and do not gather here, it’s just an earthquake. We [here in Sichuan] have a lot of experience [when it comes to earthquakes].”

One man told the BBC he had run out of his 30-floor building after feeling the earthquake’s tremors. When he realised he was trapped, he raised complaints among the crowd gathered at the gates.

“Which one is more important? The lockdown or the earthquake?” Lu Siwei, a lawyer in Chengdu, had shouted.

He says his neighbour replied: “Do not incite emotions and do not talk politics.” After several heated rounds, Mr Lu says the man then physically assaulted him.

There have been no reports linking any fatalities from the quake to the restrictions on compounds, but such reports have sparked overwhelming criticism from those on microblogging site Weibo.

“It’s a joke that we have to discuss such a question,” said one commentator under a post from a local news site which quoted a lawyer saying citizens were “constitutionally” free to flee to safety. The post had received over 3.7 million views by Tuesday.

“I guess it’s fine if I die inside the building, at least I didn’t get infected,” said another comment sarcastically.

The Chengdu Health Commission later posted on its official WeChat account that “priority should be given to safeguarding the lives of the public in the event of earthquakes, fires, floods and other disasters”.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, has been beset by a heatwave and drought this summer and last week was plunged into a lockdown after an increase in Covid cases.

China’s Covid policies require cities to enter strict lockdowns – even if just a handful of cases are reported.

However, Beijing’s drive to ensure “zero Covid” has prompted rare public dissent from citizens.

China is the world’s last major economy attempting to entirely stamp out Covid outbreaks, claiming this is necessary to prevent wider surges of the virus which could overwhelm hospitals.

The country has officially recorded fewer than 15,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Pictures show landslides and ruined mud-built homes in eastern Paktika province, where rescuers are scrambling to treat the injured.

In remote areas, helicopters have been ferrying victims to hospitals.

The local Bakhtar News Agency said the death toll was likely to rise, adding more than 600 people were injured.

The quake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the south-eastern city of Khost shortly after 01:30 local time (21:00 Tuesday GMT), when many people were at home, asleep in their beds.

“Unfortunately, last night there was a severe earthquake in four districts of Paktika province, which killed and injured hundreds of our countrymen and destroyed dozens of houses,” government spokesman Bilal Karimi tweeted.

“We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe.”

Taliban officials have called for aid agencies to rush to the affected areas in the nation’s east.

Earthquakes tend to cause significant damage in Afghanistan, where there are many rural areas where dwellings are unstable or poorly built.

Decades of conflict have made it difficult for the impoverished country to improve its protections against earthquakes and other natural disasters – despite efforts by aid agencies to reinforce some buildings over the years.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s emergency services were stretched to deal with natural disasters – with few aircraft and helicopters available to rescuers.

Most of the casualties so far were in the Gayan and Barmal districts in Paktika, a local doctor told the BBC. Local media site Etilaat-e Roz reported a whole village in Gayan had been destroyed.

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Tremors were felt across more than 500km of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Witnesses reported feeling the quake in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as well as Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

However, there have been no immediate reports of casualties, and the earthquake caused little damage in Pakistan, according to BBC Urdu.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it’s located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

The earthquake was magnitude 6.1 at a depth of some 51km, according to seismologists.

In the past 10 years, more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Pictures shared on social media showed people on stretchers, rubble and ruined homes in the eastern Paktika province.

A report by the Bakhtar News Agency said the death toll was likely to rise, adding more than 600 people were injured.

The quake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the south-eastern city of Khost.

“Unfortunately, last night there was a severe earthquake in four districts of Paktika province, which killed and injured hundreds of our countrymen and destroyed dozens of houses,” government spokesman Bilal Karimi tweeted.

“We urge all aid agencies to send teams to the area immediately to prevent further catastrophe.”

Tremors were felt across more than 500km of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre, quoted by Reuters.

The centre said that witnesses had reported feeling the quake in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as well as Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

However, there have been no immediate reports of casualties, and the earthquake caused barely any damage there, according to BBC Urdu.

The earthquake – which hit during the early hours as many people slept – was a magnitude 6.1 quake at a depth of some 51km, according to the US Geological Survey.

Earthquakes can cause significant damage in Afghanistan, particularly in the many rural areas where many dwellings are not as stable or well-built.

Afghanistan is also prone to quakes, as it’s located in a seismically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

In the past 10 years, more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. There are average 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Dozens of panicked schoolchildren were seen ducking underneath their desks before quickly running out of the classroom with their hands over their heads.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said the first quake, in Ya’an’s Lushan county, struck at a depth of 17km.

A second quake followed, measuring 4.5 in magnitude, which killed at least four and left 14 others injured.

Sichuan is a earthquake-prone area. The latest disaster called into memory an 8.0-magnitude quake which hit Wenchuan county on northwest Sichuan in 2008.

The earthquake, which hit at 9.17 a.m. local time, had a magnitude of 5.8, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute.

It said the quake’s epicenter was 14 miles northwest of the seaside village of Arvi in southeastern Crete, at a depth of six miles.

The man who has been confirmed dead was removed unconscious from a chapel in the town of Arkalochori, south of the island’s capital, Heraklion.

He had been working on renovations to the chapel.

Civil protection authorities confirmed to CNN that there has been extensive damage to some buildings, mostly old ones and that schools have been closed for the day.

Government officials are on the ground to take stock of the damage.

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The Greek Fire Service said in a statement that its forces in the region were immediately mobilized, with patrols being carried out in the wider area.

Crete is the largest and most populous of all the Greek islands, with a population of more than 634,000, according to European Union data.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre earlier reported the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5.

He has also urged the Ghana Geological Survey Authority to give government the needed advice on its logistical needs and equipment to undertake round the clock monitoring of seismic activities for urgent action.

The President made the call in Accra on Thursday when he opened a stakeholder conference on Ghana’s earthquake preparedness and response.

The meeting was organised by the Ministry of the Interior on the theme: ‘Building Resilience to Earthquakes – A National Priority.’

It is to deliberate on the Report of a 10-member Committee set up in 2019 by the Interior Ministry to draw a framework for refocusing the country’s earthquake preparedness and response.

President Akufo-Addo said with Ghana’s history of seismic activities dating back to 1636, with a destructive one hitting Accra in 1939, in addition to recent tremors in the country, there was the need to ensure losses were reduced in the event of a high magnitude earthquake.

“Knowing what to do in the event of an earthquake is crucial to survival. It is important that all Ghanaians know what to do to remain safe and alive should such an unfortunate event occur in future,” he said.

“We need to ensure that buildings including dwellings, dams and bridges are structurally competent and resilient to earthquakes of a higher magnitude.”

“Constructing well engineered structures including dams and roads and retrofitting important public lifeline buildings such as hospitals, schools, churches and mosques cannot be compromised.”

The President assured the conference of government’s commitment to ensuring that Ghanaians were protected from the effects of earthquakes and other disasters.

“Government has sufficiently demonstrated its determination to make the nation resilient to the effects of disasters and we will continue to equip NADMO (National Disaster Management Organisation) and indeed all response agencies to enhance their operational effectiveness,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo encouraged the NADMO to embark on a sustained national education campaign on the country’s earthquake preparedness and contingency plans with a request for updates on progress made.

He urged the ministers of Works and Housing, and local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development to collaborate with the Ghana Institution of Engineers to develop a scheme that would entail home owners retrofitting their homes to make them resistant to earthquakes.

The scheme would also compel prospective home owners to build in accordance with defined standards.

The President reiterated his directive to the leadership of NADMO to liaise with the Ghana Education Service to incorporate learning themes on protection against earthquakes and other disasters in the curricula of pre-tertiary education.

The report of the 10-member Committee proposes measures to enable Ghana to develop the capacity to cope with and recover from the effect of a major earthquake, with the consideration that those measures do not compromise the ability of the country to develop and place undue financial burden on individuals and the state.

It identifies and outlines the key measures that must be undertaken by relevant agencies to prepare communities for seismic risk and evaluates the capacities of relevant bodies mandated with national response to identify resource gaps.

The report also calls for the retrofitting of existing structures vulnerable to natural disasters to ensure that they are not unduly damaged and requested an update of the Ghana Building Code to include requirements for retrofitting infrastructure.

It prescribes that owners of public buildings, and buildings meant for large numbers of occupants, as well as managers of lifeline structures such as energy, water, ports, bridges/interchanges, and telecommunications infrastructure should carry out detailed assessment of their facilities, together with retrofitting to the required standards within a specified period.

Cities like Accra, Tema, Ho, Cape Coast, Takoradi, as well as important installations in the south of Ghana such as those for communication, water, oil and gas, electricity and some iconic national infrastructure all lie within areas exposed to earthquakes.

Earthquakes hazards in Ghana are generally determined by three main sources, the coastal boundary fault, which lies parallel to its Coast, the Akuapim fault zone made up of a series of faults along the Akuapim Mountain range, and the Ivory Coast fault, which occurs in the South West corner of the country.

Past earthquakes in Ghana and the examination of current conditions by the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA) have shown that the full range of secondary effects like fires, flooding from broken pipes and dams, tsunamis, landslides/rock falls and liquefaction are all possible from strong ground shaking in the country.

Stakeholders at the conference included the NADMO, National Security, the GGSA, the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority, the Ghana Health, Ambulance, National Fire and Police services and the Ghana Armed Forces

This is because the facilities fall within the earthquake Zone which stretches between the Volta, Greater Accra and Eastern Regions, as well as parts of the Central Region.

Ghana has recorded three earthquakes in 1615, 1636 and the last was in 1939 resulting in 17 deaths, 133 injured and led to the resettlement of hundreds of people in Accra.

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday accepted the recommendation of a committee put together to advise the government on ways to contain possible earthquakes in the country.

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The President has meanwhile directed an immediate integrity audit of all public buildings to determine their state of preparedness in the event of an earthquake.