Earthquake kills one in N. Maluku

Earthquake kills one in N. Maluku

Yongker Rumthe, The Jakarta Post, Manado, North Sulawesi

An earthquake hit Morotai Island in North Maluku, killing a
child, injuring seven and damaging 180 houses.

Chief of the N. Maluku Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG)
Teguh Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post by telephone on Tuesday that
the temblor, measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale, hit the province
at 4:34 a.m. local time and was felt throughout the province and
in North Sulawesi.

He said that according to reports the local BMG office
received from Morotai, the quake and its strong aftershock badly
damaged around 180 houses in Sakita and Kuruha villages, Berebere
district, some 225 kilometers north of the North Maluku capital
of Ternate.

"A two-year-old child was killed and seven people were
injured," he said, adding that he was awaiting further reports
from the island and other areas that might have been affected by
the quake.

Udi Slamet, chief of Sultan Babula Airport in Ternate,
confirmed the earthquake and said his office had difficulties
making radio contact with authorities on the island because of a
blackout. The tremor felled several electricity poles across the
island.

North Maluku is hit by hundreds of earthquakes annually, as it
is part of an earthquake-prone belt that ranges from Tarutung in
North Sumatra, through Bengkulu to Liwa in Lampung and on to
southern Java, Sumbawa island in West Nusa Tenggara, Flores
island in East Nusa Tenggara, Sorong in Papua and central Maluku.

The worst of recent earthquakes to hit North Maluku occurred
in 1998, killing 37 people, injuring hundreds of others and
damaging 969 houses and public buildings in Mangole, Sula
Islands.