BINTANGNEWS.com
– Residents fled their
homes as a 6.6-magnitude earthquake jolted Bengkulu province in the western
part of
Sumatra on Sunday morning.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics
Agency (BMKG) said the epicenter was 71 kilometers southwest of Bengkulu and
around 10 km beneath the seabed.
No tsunami alert was issued.
In several areas of Bengkulu, the earthquake
caused damage to electricity facilities.
Bengkulu resident
Dedek Hendri said he was reading an e-book on his laptop when he felt the
earthquake.
"As the earthquake got stronger, I told
my wife who was cooking in the kitchen to immediately get out of the house. The
earthquake lasted about 10 minutes, long enough. My family and other neighbors
gathered in a field near my house. People were screaming," he told The
Jakarta Post.
Residents of Padang and Solok in West Sumatra
as well as Sungaipenuh also felt the earthquake. Sungaipenuh resident Amalia,
28, said she also fled her house, and so did other residents in her
neighborhood.
"So far, no fatalities have been
reported," National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo
Purwo Nugroho said in a press statement. He also said no major damage had been
reported.
Chairman of the West Sumatra branch of the
Indonesian Association of Geologists, Ade Edward, said the epicenter was known
as a subduction zone, which was prone to big earthquakes.
He said bigger earthquakes had happened in
the same epicenter in 2000 and 2007. ***
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Editing:
T.Bintang
Source:
Thejakartapost.com
