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Ten killed in massive earthquake

JAKARTA: A massive earthquake killed 10 people, injured scores and triggered a small tsunami in western Indonesia on Wednesday, authorities said. Warnings of potentially destructive waves were issued across the Indian Ocean region.

The 8.4-magnitude quake off Sumatra island damaged malls, mosques and car dealerships along the coast and could be felt in four countries, with tall buildings swaying as far as 2,000 km away.

It was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including a magnitude-6.6 quake that briefly triggered a second tsunami alert in Indonesia, said Suhardjono, a senior official at the local meteorological agency.

Seven people were killed in the town of Bengkulu and surrounding areas, Social Affairs Department official Felix Valentino told the news portal detik.com.

In Padang, 400 km away, three bodies were pulled from badly damaged buildings, a witness said.

Excavation machinery was being used to search through the rubble for survivors.

Indonesia’s Meteorological agency said via an sms alert the quake’s epicentre was 159 km southwest of Bengkulu, which is in south Sumatra.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued an Indian Ocean tsunami warning after the huge quake struck at 6:10 p.m.

Authorities from Malaysia and Sri Lanka issued independent warnings, as did India for the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and Australia for Christmas and Cocos Islands.

A huge earthquake struck the same area on December 26, 2004, causing a massive tsunami and over 2,30,000 deaths in countries across the region.

Indonesia suffers frequent quakes, lying on an active seismic belt on part of the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”. Some residents of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand also felt the quake. — AP

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