At least 13 areas in Bangladesh could be involved in earthquakes due to tectonic shifts.

Seismologists warn that a magnitude 7-8 quake is likely to be felt in Dhaka from a distance of 100 to 200 kilometers, which could damage weak buildings in the capital.

The ground is soft and weak in the expanded or new residential areas of the city and therefore multi-story buildings that violate building codes are likely to collapse under the impact of an intermediate earthquake. Any tremor poses a relatively minor risk on one to three story buildings built on red soil.

Professor Syed Humayun Akhter, Deputy Rector of the Open University of Bangladesh, stated that there are 13 subterranean fault lines with rifts, and although all of them are at a long distance from Dhaka, many buildings can collapse during a medium to strong earthquake.

Akhter added that, unfortunately, building codes and terrain characteristics are not respected during the construction of most structures in Dhaka, and therefore an earthquake lower in intensity to the one that struck Türkiye recently, can cause more damage.

According to the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka there are 2.1 million buildings, of which 600,000 have six floors or more.

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