A strong earthquake on September 26 killed at least 20 people and damaged a bridge, a hospital and other buildings on one of Indonesia’s less populated islands.
Parts of a building at an Islamic university collapsed in Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province. Local disaster official Albert Simaela said a teacher was killed there when parts of the building fell on her.
Mr. Simaela said a main hospital in Ambon was damaged and patients were evacuated to tents in the hospital’s yard.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said at least 19 others were killed and more than 2,000 people took refuge in various shelters.
Photo: USGS
The magnitude 6.5 quake was centered 33 kilometres northeast of Ambon at a depth of 18 kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Rahmat Triyono, head of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami centre, said the inland earthquake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami, but witnesses told television stations that people along coastal areas ran to higher ground in fear one might occur.
Mr. Simaela said many people drove to higher ground by motorbike and car, causing traffic congestion in Ambon.
“The temblor was so strong, causing us to pour into the streets,” said Musa, an Ambon resident who uses a single name. He said there were no injuries or damage in his neighborhood, but that people on social media reported damage elsewhere in the city.
The national disaster mitigation agency said the quake caused cracks in a main bridge in Ambon, and pictures released by the agency showed minor damage at Pattimura University in the city. Several houses, universities and local government offices were also damaged.
With a population of around 1.7 million, Maluku is one of Indonesia’s least populous Provinces.
Two dozen aftershocks
Terrified people ran into the streets as buildings fell in around them after the 6.5-magnitude quake hit at around 8:45 local time (0045 GMT).
A resident walks at a damaged university building following an earthquake in Ambon, Indonesia, September 26, 2019 in this photo taken by Antara Foto.
An official from the local search and rescue agency said one man died after falling off his motorbike while trying to flee to higher ground, while another person was missing after being buried in a landslide.
People in Ambon, a city of about 4,00,000 people, were seen helping injured residents with blood-stained clothes, while images showed wrecked homes with collapsed walls and rubble strewn on the ground, but the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
“The impact was felt across Ambon city and surrounding areas,” said Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquake and tsunami division at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
“I was asleep with my family when suddenly the house started to shake,” said an AFP reporter in Ambon. “The quake was really strong. We ran from our house and saw the neighbours fleeing too. Everybody was panicking.”
Initial reports said the quake struck offshore, but later analysis found it hit onshore, raising the potential for damage, according to Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency.
Local BMKG head Oral Sem Wilar called for calm.
“People were panicking and started to evacuate in some places, but we are trying to tell them there’s no need to panic because there’s no tsunami threat,” he told AFP .
‘Ring of Fire’
The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth. It experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
In August, five people died and several were injured after a powerful undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia’s heavily populated Java island.
Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
The force of the impact saw entire neighbourhoods levelled by liquefaction — a process where the ground starts behaving like a liquid and swallows up the earth like quicksand.
Nearly 60,000 people are still living in makeshift accommodation nearly a year after the double disaster, the Red Cross said this week.
On Boxing Day 2004, a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.
