Central Sulawesi hit by powerful quake, 2m tsunami

MAKASSAR: Indonesia was rocked by a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake yesterday, with the national disaster agency saying that “many” buildings had collapsed in the aftermath of the huge tremor.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.

A tsunami wave of up to 2m hit the shoreline of Palu city after the quake.

“There are reports that many buildings collapsed in the earthquake,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.

“Residents panicked and scattered out of their homes.”

Pictures supplied by the agency showed a badly damaged shopping mall in the city of Palu where at least one floor had collapsed onto the one below.

Other pictures showed major damage to buildings, with rubble strewn about the road and large cracks running through the pavement.

Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to hard-hit areas, Nugroho said.

The latest quake was a higher magnitude than those that killed hundreds on the island of Lombok earlier this year.

Yesterday's tremor was centred 78km north of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, but was felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on the neighbouring island of Kalimantan, Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

The initial tremor struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country on the holiest day of the week when mosques would be especially busy.