A powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake killed at least two people and damaged scores of homes in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning and widespread panic.
The victims were believed to have been crushed under their collapsed homes on Yapen Island, close to the epicenter off the northern coast of Papua Province, police said.
“Two people were killed on the island because of the quake. We’re still collecting information about the damage,” Yapen police chief Deny Siregar said.
The quake struck off the southeast coast of Yapen at 12:16pm, officials said. It was the second of a series of strong tremors that were felt across a vast but sparsely populated region.
Yapen island, with a population of about 70,000 people, appeared to be the worst-hit area with one church destroyed and at least 500 homes damaged, police said.
“The situation now is still tense. We have moved people to higher ground in anticipation of a tsunami,” Siregar said by telephone from Serui town on Yapen.
Indonesia’s Geophysics and Meteorological Agency issued a localized tsunami warning, but it was lifted an hour later.
Thousands of people fled their homes and workplaces on nearby Biak island and in the West Papua provincial capital of Manokwari about 300km to the west.
“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,” Biak 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 Manokwari, people 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,’” a correspondent in the town said.
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