Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity ©Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

"Some people have been discharged from hospital," he told AFP. By Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

Dar es Salaam (AFP) - At least 13 people were killed and 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country Saturday, local authorities told AFP.s

"The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from 192 injured to 203," said Deodatus Kinawilo, District Commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre of the quake. "We currently have 11 people dead and more than 100 injured, several of whom have been hospitalised... rescue operations are ongoing," Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district said by telephone. The U.S. Geological Survey said Saturday that there is a low likelihood of casualties and damage from the quake in the Lake Victoria region whose tremors were felt as far as western Kenya and parts of Uganda, which share the waters of the lake. The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria, according to the US Geological Survey. An AFP correspondent in the Tanzanian capital whose mother's family lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed and that the regional hospital was overwhelmed and could not handle any more patients. No damage had been reported in the economic capital, Dar es Salaam, which is located some 1,400 kilometres southeast of Bukoba.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurs in northern Tanzania, near Lake Victoria, killing at least 13 people and injuring 200 others. Tanzanian authorities report significant damage in the town of Bukoba. The governments of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda report tremors.