International News

MEUREUDU, Indonesia, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – At least 25
people died and hundreds were injured after a strong earthquake struck off Aceh province on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, local officials said.
The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake struck Pidie Jaya district at dawn, as some
in the predominantly Muslim region prepared for morning prayers.
Mosques and shops were flattened in the small town of Meureudu, where the
force of the quake sent people fleeing from their homes. No tsunami alert was
issued.
The head of the local disaster agency, Puteh Manaf, said the sole hospital
in the district had been overwhelmed by the number of injured.
“The data we have now is that 25 people have been killed and hundreds are
estimated to have suffered injuries,” he told AFP.
Local district secretary Iskandar Ali also confirmed the figure, citing
preliminary data that showed at least 25 had died in the quake.
Rescue operations were under way to find those believed trapped beneath the
rubble, with heavy machinery being used to shift the debris.
A witness said local residents were wandering the streets, unable to return
to their damaged homes and fearing aftershocks.
Images from the scene showed homes levelled, mosque spires toppled and cars
crushed under rubble.
Meureudu resident Hasbi Jaya, 37, said his family was asleep when the
powerful quake struck.
“We immediately ran outside the house but it crumbled. Everything from the
roof to the floor collapsed, and was destroyed,” he told AFP.
“I looked around and all my neighbours’ houses were also completely
destroyed.”
The local hospital was struggling to cope, with the injured being treated
on the ground outside the front of the building.
Patients were also being sent to a neighbouring district with greater
facilities, said deputy district chief Said Mulyadi.
He said at least seven children were among the dead, and many more had
suffered broken bones and other injuries.
“There are many shophouses have caved in, and many (people) are alive but
trapped,” he told AFP.
Seismologists said the earthquake was felt across much of Aceh province,
which was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
At least five aftershocks followed the quake, said Eridawati, local head of
the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.
The US Geological Survey upgraded the magnitude to 6.5 from an initial
reading of 6.4 and issued a yellow alert for expected fatalities and damage.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its
position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
Aceh lies on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which is particularly
prone to quakes.
In June, a 6.5-magnitude quake struck off the west of Sumatra, damaging
scores of buildings and injuring eight people.
A huge undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 triggered a tsunami
that engulfed parts of Aceh.
The tsunami killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia and tens of
thousands more in other countries around the Indian Ocean.