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JAKARTA: A 6.2-magnitude earthquake on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi killed at least seven people and injured hundreds on Friday (January 15), the country’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said, as residents in panic fled to safer areas after many buildings were damaged.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located 6 km northeast of the city of Majene, at a depth of 10 km.
Initial information from the BNPB showed that four people had died and another 637 were injured in Majene, while there were three more dead and two dozen injured in the neighboring province of Mamuju.
Thousands of people had fled their homes in search of safety when the earthquake struck shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, damaging at least 60 homes, the agency said.
The earthquake was felt strongly for about seven seconds, but did not trigger a tsunami warning.
Videos on social media showed residents fleeing to higher ground on motorcycles and a child trapped under the rubble as people tried to remove the rubble with their bare hands.
Residents inspect houses damaged by the earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, on January 15, 2021, after a strong shallow inland earthquake struck eastern Indonesia. (AP Photo / Rudy Akdyaksyah)
Some buildings were badly damaged, including two hotels, the governor’s office and a shopping mall, Sudirman Samual, a journalist based in Mamuju, north of the epicenter, told Reuters.
At least one route to Mamuju had been cut off, he said, due to damage to a bridge.
Hours earlier on Thursday, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook the same district, damaging several houses and injuring one person, BNPB said in an earlier statement.
The epicenter of the previous earthquake was 4km northwest of Majene, at a depth of 10km.
Residents fled their homes after a strong earth movement for about three to four seconds, the statement said. There was also no tsunami warning from the previous earthquake.
BNPB said that a series of earthquakes in the last 24 hours caused at least three landslides and that the electricity supply was cut off.
Straddling the Pacific ring of fire, Indonesia, a highly tectonic nation, is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In 2018, a devastating 6.2 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Palu in Sulawesi, killing thousands of people.
