Strong tremors, at a relatively shallow depth of field, shook western Indonesia and the Philippines’ largest island today, shaking buildings and causing terror to residents on the streets, but so far no casualties or severe damage have been reported in the two island countries.
In Indonesia, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the west coast of Sumatra, while in the Philippines, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake 110 km off the island of Luzon, according to the US Seismological Institute (USGS).
Authorities in both countries have confirmed that no casualties or damage have been reported so far and that no tsunami alert was issued.
The quake off Indonesia struck at 04:06 (local time; yesterday Sunday at 23:09 Greek time), at a depth of 21 km, with its epicenter 167 km west of the city of Pariaman, in Sumatra.
The quake “was felt for about a minute and was moderate in intensity, people panicked and took to the streets,” said Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency.
In the Philippines the earthquake occurred at 05:05 (local time; 23:05 Greek time) and several residents of the capital, Manila, woke up because of it.
However, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it did not expect any casualties or damage.
The quake off Indonesia was felt most strongly in sparsely populated islands north of Sumatra, where several residents are housed in wooden houses.
The Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Service (BKMG) said the main quake was followed by several strong aftershocks.
Indonesia and the Philippines are often hit by strong earthquakes because of their location on the “ring of fire” of the Pacific Ocean, under which tectonic plates intersect.
Last month, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake north of Sumatra killed at least ten people and injured dozens of homes and mosques.
In 2004, one of the strongest earthquakes in history, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale, struck Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people across the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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