Quakes jolt NTT and Sumatra, many refugees flee in panic

The Jakarta Post, Kupang, Jakarta

A strong earthquake jolted East Nusa Tenggara province on Monday, slightly damaging scores of buildings and causing local residents to flee in panic. No injuries were reported.

Earlier, an earthquake had also rocked Lampung and the neighboring province of Bengkulu on Sunday night, but there were no reports of structural damage or injuries.

Monday's quake, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, shook West Timor at around 9:51 a.m. The epicenter was in the Timor Sea, some 72 kilometers southeast of Kupang city, volcanologists said.

It caused cracks in scores of buildings in Kupang and shook most others in the city, Rote Ndao and the southern part of West Timor.

"The strongest tremor was probably felt by residents in southern Timor Island covering the regencies of Kupang, South Timor Tengah, North Timor Tengah and Belu," said the head of the Kupang office of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), Rivai Marulak.

"The epicenter was at a depth of 38.5 kilometers below the surface of the sea," he added.

Hundreds of officials from the East Nusa Tenggara administration fled out of their office buildings after they felt the quake.

"We were really afraid and tried to save ourselves as glass the windows and the buildings suddenly started shaking," said Adi Tiran, a protocol officer working in the province's gubernatorial office in Kupang.

The quake was followed by an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale which took place at around 10:15 a.m. in the Flores Sea, panicking thousands of people.

"The quake in the Flores Sea was an aftershock and was only felt by residents in Alor regency and the southern part of Flores," Rivai said.

Residents said they were terrified as they feared that Flores was going to be hit by a devastating quake like the one that occurred in 1991, which killed some 50 people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings.

"We were scared about the possibility of another quake, perhaps even more powerful," said Lorens Pandu, a resident of Kalabahi village, Alor regency.

On Saturday, a quake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale also jolted Alor and several parts of Southeast Maluku regency, Maluku province.

Alor Regent Ans Takalapeta said on Monday that there were no reports of structural damage or injuries as the epicenter was far beneath the sea bed.

On Sunday, an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted Lampung at about 9.57 p.m., Yusuf, an official with the BMG Jakarta office was quoted by DPA as saying.

He said the quake's epicenter was in the Indian Ocean, about 151 kilometers southwest Kotabumi town, at about 105 kilometers beneath the sea bed.

Antara reported the quake also shook Bengkulu, sending residents running out of their homes in panic.

On June 2000, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Bengkulu, killing at least 94 people and heavily damaging thousands of houses.

Indonesia is located in the Pacific volcanic belt known as the "Ring of Fire", where earthquakes and volcanoes are commonplace.