The earthquake that struck Nepal has affected Bangladesh. Accord the European-led retailers' group is conducting an impact assessment on 200 vulnerable garment factories with which it does business after the tremor hit the country.

The Accord assessment is aimed at determining if the factories that are producing garment items for its affiliated companies have been structurally affected by the quake. All 11 Accord structural engineers are in the field doing immediate impact inspections at approximately 200 factories, deemed structurally most vulnerable from initial inspections.

Accord will integrate additional new safety hazards with the corrective action plan for the factory and do the corresponding support and verification work. The group has requested factories, which underwent inspection, to determine if the earthquake has caused any structural damage to the buildings. It has formally communicated to owners of inspected factories, requesting them to report the impact of the earthquake on their building and on any precautionary measures or investigations they have done since.

The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.8 on the Richter scale. Its intensity in Bangladesh was lower, about 4 to 5 on the intensity scale. However the Nepal earthquake triggered major tremors in Bangladesh as the earth plates are interconnected.