Strong quake strikes off Indonesia
A STRONG magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off Indonesia on Sunday, the US Geologica l Sur vey (USGS) reported, triggering a brief tsunami warning t hat sent panicked residents fleeing to higher ground.
The Southeast Asian nation is one of the most disaster-hit on Earth due to its position straddling t he so-ca lled Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
Earthquakes and tsunamis have claimed thousands of lives in recent years.
Sunday’s quake struck at a depth of 24km in the Molucca Sea, 185km southeast of Manado, between Sulawesi and Malkuku islands, according to the USGS.
Indonesia’s geophysics agency issued a tsunami warning for coastal communities nearby, where residents were adv ised to stay away from the coast.
The warning was later lifted by the agency and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Residents of Ternate i n the Maluku island chain described panic as t he quake hit.
“I was getting ready to sleep when the window started ratt ling,” Budi Nurgia nto said.
“It was ver y strong – I ran from my house and a ll my neighbours fled too.”
Video footage from Ternate showed scared residents – some clutching children – fleeing f rom the coast on motorbikes.
Hasyim Yusuf, the head of the Ternate disaster mitigation agency, said t here were no reports of fata lities, but some people were “traumatised” by the tremor.
“In Ternate, people were panicking and some evacuated to higher ground,” he told Metro TV.
An officia l from Indonesia’s geophysics agency, Ot Oral Sem Wilar, said he felt the tremor strongly from where he was holiday ing in North Sulawesi.
“My friends i n Manado said people who live a long t he coasta l area are evacuating.”
The USGS warned that considerable damage was possible in poorly built or badly designed structures.
Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island killed more than 2,200 with a thousand more declared missing.
It has been hit by a string of deadly quakes including a devastating 2004 tremor measuring 9.1 magnitude that struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
The Boxing Day disaster was the world’s third biggest quake since 1900, and lifted the ocean floor in some places by 15m.
Indonesia’s Aceh prov ince was t he hardest hit area, but t he tsunami affected coasta l areas as far away as Africa.