Dozens killed as 6.2 earthquake collapses homes
MAMUJU, Indonesia — A strong, shallow earthquake shook Indonesia’s Sulawesi island early Friday, toppling homes and buildings, triggering landslides and killing at least 42 people.
More than 600 people were injured by the magnitude 6.2 quake, which sent people fleeing their homes in the darkness. Authorities were still collecting information about the full scale of casualties and damage in the affected areas.
Many people were trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes and buildings.
In a video released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, a girl stuck in the wreckage of a house cried out for help and said she heard the sound of other family members also trapped. “Please help me, it hurts,” the girl pleaded.
Rescuers said an excavator was needed to save the girl and others trapped in collapsed buildings. Other images showed a severed bridge and damaged and flattened houses.
The earthquake damaged part of a hospital and patients were moved to an emergency tent outside. Rescuers struggled to extract seven patients and staff who were trapped under tons of rubble. After several hours, an excavator came to help and the rescuers eventually retrieved four survivors and three bodies.
Thousands of displaced people were evacuated to temporary shelters.
The quake was centered 22 miles south of West Sulawesi province’s Mamuju district, at a depth of 11 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The Indonesian disaster agency said the death toll climbed to 42 as rescuers in Mamuju retrieved 34 bodies trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes and buildings.
The agency said in a statement that eight people were killed and 637 others were injured in Mamuju’s neighboring district of Majene. It said at least 300 houses and a health clinic were damaged and about 15,000 people were being housed in temporary shelters in the district. Power and phones were down in many areas.
West Sulawesi Administration Secretary Muhammad Idris told TVOne that the governor’s office building was among those that collapsed in Mamuju, the provincial capital.
Rescuer Saidar Rahmanjaya said a lack of heavy equipment was hampering efforts to clear the rubble. He said his team was working to save dozens of people trapped in eight buildings, including in the governor’s office, a hospital and a hotel.
“We are racing against time to rescue them,” he said.
President Joko Widodo said in a televised address that he had ordered his social minister and the chiefs of the military, police and disaster agency to carry out emergency response measures and search and rescue operations as quickly as possible.