A strong earthquake struck Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua early yesterday, panicking people, with at least one teenager missing after possibly drowning in a river. Several buildings and houses were either destroyed or damaged.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7 earthquake struck at 6:41am yesterday and was centered 247km west of Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua.
Its depth was measured at 52.9km beneath the remote mountainous region of the island.
“Everyone panicked, they were running from their houses,” said Yonas Taufudu, a disaster mitigation official in Jayapura.
He said a 15-year-old boy was feared to have drowned after falling into a river in Memberamo, a mountainous district close to the epicenter, and electricity was cut in some places, including a hospital, which was briefly evacuated.
Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics official Hendra Rahman said the earthquake was felt across the province and that the hardest hit area was Sarmi, a town on the northern coast of the island.
Communication problems in mountain forests and remote areas were hampering efforts to assess the situation, Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwon Nugroho said. However, at least four houses, a church and two buildings were reportedly either destroyed or damaged in Memberamo.
Nugroho said a disaster assessment team and emergency supplies were being flown to the affected areas.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire.” A massive earthquake off Sumatra Island in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
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