IMF summit shaken as strong quakes hit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
JAKARTA/SYDNEY(AFP) – An earthquake Thursday killed three people in Indonesia and rattled hotels where International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegates are attending a major summit, a fortnight after a quaketsunami killed more than 2,000 in Palu, Indonesia.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Bali and Java islands in the early hours, jolting residents awake and sending them rushing into the streets. The tremor's epicenter was in the Bali Sea around 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the eastern end of Java island, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Some attendees in Bali for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings this week evacuated their hotels as the quake shook the island.
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) are also in Bali to attend the inaugural ASEAN Leaders’ Gathering scheduled on Thursday.
The ASEAN Leaders’ Gathering is a special meeting of ASEAN Leaders with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank (WB) president Jim Yong-kim and United Nations (UN) SecretaryGeneral António Guterres.
“I felt the quake for at least 30 seconds and I panicked. At first I didn't want to go out but then I decided to leave,'' Katharina Sudiyono, an Indonesian attendee at the summit, told AFP.
Peter Jacobs, head of the Indonesian Central Bank's IMF-World Bank taskforce, said delegates in Bali's Nusa Dua district for the summit were quickly informed of the situation.
''Many summit participants woke up and asked questions, but we immediately sent out information to them that there had been an earthquake and the impact in Nusa Dua,'' he told AFP.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in Bali and the summit proceeded Thursday uninterrupted.
''We send our condolences to those affected by the earthquake. Here in Bali, the earthquake has not caused significant damage nor any disruption to the meetings,'' an IMF spokesman said.
The conference centre was designed to withstand seismic events, and participants had been told to remain there in the event of a quake.
In East Java, three people were crushed to death in their sleep when the quake brought down buildings in Sumenep district and sent people fleeing their homes.
PNG quake In Papua New Guinea, a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck New Britain Island Thursday, briefly triggering a tsunami alert which was later recalled. "Based on all available data the tsunami threat from this earthquake has now passed," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The USGS said the quake hit about 125 kilometres (80 miles) east of Kimbe at a depth of around 40km.
There were a string of smaller tremors measuring up to 6.2 immediately before and after the main earthquake, which struck at 6:48am (2048 Wednesday GMT).
The USGS website said there was a "low likelihood of casualties and damage" from the quake.
PNG sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
The country is still recovering after a 7.5-magnitude quake hit its mountainous interior in February, killing at least 125 people, cutting off access to villages and knocking out power.
Its remote terrain means it often takes several days for information about damage from quakes to reach officials and aid agencies. (With a report from PNA)