Earthquake wrecks homes in Indonesia
A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia today damaging many buildings.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 and struck under the island of Simeulue where 75,000 people live off the western coast of Sumatra island.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert saying coastlines close to the epicentre were at risk of a possible tsunami.
However, it cancelled the warning two hours later, saying sea gauges had not detected any large waves. Residents on the Sumatra coast also said no tsunami had struck.
The quake was felt across much of western and northern Sumatra island, where many people fled their homes. In coastal areas, residents ran to high ground in fear of a tsunami.
“Everything shook very strongly for more than a minute and I ran along with the others. I heard people screaming in panic,” said Ahmad Yushadi, a resident of Aceh province on the northern tip of the island.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago with a population of 235 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
The Indian Ocean fault that ruptured today off the coast of Sumatra is particularly deadly.
A magnitude-9 quake there in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them on Sumatra.
Three months later, an 8.7 quake further down the fault killed 1,000 on the islands of Nias and Simeulue.
