Momiri town has been badly damaged

Strong earthquake hits Indonesia, residents rush to the streets

  • A view of the beach after the earthquake, where the debris appears from the rising water level.

    Reuters

picture

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 shook the east of the country yesterday, authorities in Indonesia said, prompting the authorities to issue a tsunami warning and prompting residents to flee their homes, but it caused only minor damage and injured one person.

Authorities raised tsunami warnings about two hours after the earthquake at 3.20 a.m. GMT in the Flores Sea, 112 kilometers northwest of the town of Larantuka, in the eastern part of the island of Flores.

"Everyone rushed to the street," Augustinus Florianos, a resident of the island's town of Momiri, told Reuters.

Momiri was severely damaged by an earthquake of similar magnitude to that of 1992.

Tsunami warnings were issued for the regions of the Kings Archipelago, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Southeast and South Sulawesi, after the earthquake occurred.

The US Geological Survey later reported that the quake had a magnitude of 7.3 and was at a depth of 12 km.

The disaster mitigation agency said one person was injured in Manggarai on Flores island, and a school building and several homes were damaged on Slayar island in South Sulawesi.

The Indonesian Meteorological Department reported that the earthquake, caused by an active fault in the Flores Sea, was followed by at least 15 aftershocks, the strongest of which was 5.6, but the quake did not cause a noticeable increase in sea levels.

The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had earlier said that based on initial earthquake parameters, dangerous tsunamis could occur at coasts located 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter.

Indonesia lies on both sides of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of ​​high seismic activity that sits above many tectonic plates.

• Tsunami warnings were issued for the regions of the Kings Archipelago, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Southeast and South Sulawesi, after the earthquake occurred.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news