A magnitude 6.6 earthquake yesterday struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra, the US Geological Survey said, triggering panic on the nearest island, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The shallow quake hit at 12:30pm near the island of Nias, about 250km south of the city of Sinabang.
Nias Search and Rescue Agency spokesperson Agus Wibisono said that there had so far been no reports of damage or casualties.
“I contacted the search-and-rescue team in South Nias and West Nias. They’re safe, there were no casualties and damage,” Wibisono told reporters.
The tremors were quite strong, Wibisono said, adding that as a result, people panicked, especially those living around the coast fearing a tsunami.
“There was an earthquake which made me dizzy, but so far buildings in my area do not appear to be damaged,” Sosial Zigoto, a tourist guide in South Nias, told reporters by telephone. “When it happened, we all rushed out of the house and felt dizzy.”
The tremor was felt quite strongly in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra Province, and was followed by a milder aftershock, but no damage or casualties were reported.
Indonesia experiences frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide, stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
In 2004, a devastating magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people throughout the Indo-pacific region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.
In 2018, a powerful earthquake shook the island of Lombok and several more tremors followed over the next couple of weeks, killing more than 550 people on the island and neighboring Sumbawa.
Later that year, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi Island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
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