Sali Pelu
Damage has been reported in Biak after it was struck by a large earthquake. (Graphic courtesy of the US Geological Survey)
Manokwari.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a localized tsunami warning and panic as people fled their homes, officials and residents said.
At least two people were killed, police said.
Police said initial reports suggested they were crushed when their houses collapsed as the quake shook Yapen island off northern Papua province shortly after midday.
“Two people were killed on the island because of the quake. We’re still collecting information about the damage,” Yapen Island police chief Deny Siregar told AFP.
The quake struck about 123 kilometers southeast of Biak island, West Papua, officials said. It followed shortly after a 6.2-magnitude quake in the same area.
A church collapsed and scores of homes were damaged, police and officials said.
“I was driving my car to the office ... I felt a huge tremor for about one or two minutes. The car was being flung around,” Baik resident Osibyo Wakum said.
He said people rushed out of homes and buildings as the quake rocked the reef-fringed tropical island around lunchtime.
In Serui town on Yapen island, to the south of Biak, police chief Deny Siregar said a church had collapsed and about 150 homes had been damaged. But there were no reports of deaths, he said.
“The situation now is still tense. We have moved people to higher ground in anticipation of a tsunami,” he said.
Indonesia’s Geophysics and Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning but it was lifted an hour later.
Residents of Manokwari, about 300 kilometers northwest of the epicenter, also fled to open spaces as buildings swayed and the earth shook.
“There was a swaying movement for about 40 seconds. People ran out of their homes, shouting ‘get out, get out, the earth is shaking’,” said an AFP correspondent in the town.
Many people remained outside as a series of powerful aftershocks shook the region, some as strong as 6.6-magnitude.
The vast Indonesian archipelago stretches from the Pacific to the Indian oceans and straddles major seismic faultlines that trigger thousands of quakes a year.
The 2004 Asian tsunami killed at least 168,000 people in Indonesia alone when the sea surged over the northern tip of Sumatra island after a 9.3-magnitude quake split the seabed to the west.
A 7.6-magnitude quake killed about 1,000 people in the port of Padang, western Sumatra, in September last year.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Sumatra in April but caused no significant damage.
Scientists cannot predict when the next major earthquake will hit Indonesia but they say it is only a matter of time before another catastrophe on the same or even greater scale as 2004 strikes the archipelago again.
Agence France-Presse