Twenty people have been killed and dozens injured in a strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale that struck the remote Moloko archipelago in the east of the country, causing landslides, according to the disaster agency.
Terrified residents rushed to the streets and buildings around them fell in the morning earthquake.
A spokesman for the National Agency for the Reduction of Accidents, Agus Wipowo, said in a statement that the number of victims reached 20 dead, and that «at least 100 people were injured, and evacuated more than 2000».
He said the dead included an infant.
Disaster agency officials said earlier that a number of victims were killed by the rubble, while one person was buried under a landslide.
One person died of a heart attack during the quake, while a woman was killed in a motorcycle accident while trying to escape, officials said.
A number of residents of Ambon, a city of 400,000 people, were seen trying to help wounded residents whose clothes were stained with blood, while pictures of destroyed houses appeared.
A number of patients fled a local hospital during the earthquake, prompting officials to set up temporary shelters outside the hospital building, an official said.
In Turkey, an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, yesterday, rocked the city of Istanbul, prompting residents to evacuate buildings, and led to disruption of communication in the city.
The epicenter was in the Sea of Marmara off the coast of Silivri in the outskirts of Istanbul.
Authorities confirmed that the quake caused no damage, but many offices and schools were immediately evacuated.
The website of Sabah newspaper said the quake forced students to flee schools.
The tremor also caused interruptions in communications, while no deaths, injuries or material damage were reported.
The new earthquake comes two days after a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit Istanbul, centered in the Sea of Marmara, off the coast of Silivri in the European section of the city, a depth of 9.8 kilometers.