Powerful quake kills five in Manokwari
Agencies, Jakarta
A powerful earthquake in the Papua district of Manokwari killed at least five people, injuring more than 170 others and damaged over 120 buildings, officials said on Friday.
The temblor, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, jolted the district and the surrounding area at about 7:50 p.m. local time on Thursday, meteorology officials said.
"The latest data show five people have died," police First Brigadier Suparta from the main coastal town of Manokwari told Agence France-Presse.
A policeman died after he was hit by falling debris from a mosque in the worst-hit area of Ransiki, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Manokwari, said another police officer who declined to give his name.
He said many homes were damaged but communication problems were hampering efforts to assess the situation.
Two infants in Ransiki died after their homes collapsed, another Manokwari policeman, told AFP.
Manokwari's district chief Dominggus Mandaccan said more than 170 villagers had suffered injuries from the quake.
He said casualties and estimate damage could rise but data was slow to arrive at his office due to poor communications and lack of transportation to and from the hardest-hit areas.
George Leskona, an official at the Manokwari Earthquake Center, added that 60 homes, mosques and churches in Ransiki and Oranbari sub-districts were flattened by the quake, while 75 others sustained heavy or slight damage.
"Several areas south of Manokwari, such as Oranbari and Ransiki are reportedly the hardest hit. The quake caused landslides, covering some sections of roads, cutting off land transportation to Oranbari," Leskona said, adding that there are also reports of crack as long as three kilometers in the area of Oranbari.
He said a series of aftershocks followed the initial quake, forcing thousands of residents to stay outdoors overnight, adding that a team of paramedics and social workers have left Manokwari to Ransiki and Oranbari, using speedboats to carry medicines and other emergency supplies, Laskona said.
Arief, an official at Jakarta's National Earthquake Center, said the earthquake's epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean, about 99 kilometers south of Manokwari.
According to Reuters, the Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg, France, earlier registered the quake at 7.4 on the Richter scale, describing it as the biggest in the region since 1995.
The Indonesian archipelago is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions, sitting on the so-called "Pacific Rim of Fire" infamous for its volcanic and seismic activity. It regularly experiences quakes of more than 5.0 on the Richter scale.
The last fatal quake in the country was at Bengkulu in the southwest of Sumatra island in June 2000, when 100 people died.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on the Richter scale can cause considerable damage in heavily-populated areas.