SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Jakarta: A powerful earthquake with several aftershocks struck off the Indonesian coast early on Saturday, damaging buildings and homes and triggering an early tsunami warning.
The 7.7-magnitude quake was recorded by several agencies at 5.58am local time (7.58am AEST) near the south-eastern island of Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. It was followed by at least four aftershocks with magnitudes between 5.5 and 6.1, the US Geological Survey said.
Indonesia’s geophysics agency BMKG issued an early tsunami warning for some regions in the country.
Separately, Australia’s tsunami warning centre said the undersea earthquake would have “no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories”.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency issued a tsunami warning for part of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks.
Residents along affected coastlines were advised to move to higher ground as officials were closely monitoring coastal tide gauges for any changes.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 1992, a magnitude-7 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed about 2500 people on Flores Island.
Saturday’s earthquake was felt across much of Flores Island. Initial reports indicated there was damage to homes and public facilities, though officials had not yet released estimates of the number of damaged buildings or any casualties.
Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka, a regency within East Nusa Tenggara province, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground.
“Many buildings here were damaged … I saw that the waiting room at the Pelni port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.
A video on Facebook, verified by Reuters as located at a port in Maumere, the main town in Sikka Regency on Flores Island, showed parts of a building collapsing in dust and rubble as people screamed and ran in the street.
A hospital in the district of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara Province was moving patients outside, Kompas TV footage showed.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit Indonesia’s Flores region with a depth of 10 kilometres. Its epicentre was 68 kilometres north-north-west of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Depth is one of the most difficult aspects of an earthquake to measure. BMKG recorded the first quake at a depth of 15 kilometres. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre recorded it at a depth of 35 kilometres.
Reuters, Bloomberg, AP
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