JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A strong shallow earthquake shook the Indonesian island of Sulawesi shortly after midnight, causing landslides and sending people fleeing their homes in the dark at night. At least ten people were killed and more than 200 injured, but authorities were still gathering information on the devastated areas.
In a video released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, a girl trapped in the wreckage of a house called for help and said she heard the sound of other family members in the rubble but could not get out. “Please help me, it hurts,” the girl told lifeguards, who responded that they wanted to help her desperately.
In the video, rescuers said an excavator was needed to save the girl and other people trapped in collapsed buildings. Other images showed a broken bridge, damaged and even flattened houses. Television stations reported that the quake damaged part of a hospital and patients were taken to an emergency tent outside.
Another video showed a crying father asking for help to save his children buried under tons of rubble after his house collapsed. “My kids there … they’re trapped inside, please help,” he shouted in fright.
Thousands of displaced people were evacuated to temporary shelters. The magnitude 6.2 earthquake on Friday centered 36 kilometers south of Mamuju district, West Sulawesi province, at a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
West Sulawesi Administration Secretary Muhammad Idris told TVOne that the governor’s office building was collapsed in Mamuju, the provincial capital, and that many people were trapped, including two security guards. of security.
Idris said so far the deaths of seven people in Mamuju have been confirmed.
Lifeguard Saidar Rahmanjaya said the lack of heavy equipment made the operation difficult to clean up the rubble of collapsed houses and buildings. He said his team was working to rescue 20 people trapped in eight buildings, including the governor’s office, a hospital and hotels.
“We are running against time to rescue them,” Rahmanjaya said.
Three more people died in the neighboring district of Majene when their homes were flattened by the earthquake while they slept, said Sirajuddin, the head of the district’s disaster agency.
Sirajuddin, who is named after him, said at least 218 people have been injured so far and more than 300 homes and buildings have been damaged, including a hospital, health clinics, hotels and offices.
He said that although the inland earthquake had no potential to cause a tsunami, people in coastal areas rushed to higher ground, for fear it could occur. There are now about 10,000 people in shelters.
Landslides began at three sites and blocked a main road connecting Mamuju with Majene district, said Raditya Jati, a spokesman for the disaster agency.
On Thursday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake affected the same region, causing damage to several homes but causing no apparent casualties.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 260 million people, is often affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location in the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Palu on the island of Sulawesi caused a tsunami and caused the earth to collapse in a phenomenon called liquefaction. More than 4,000 people died, many of the victims were buried when entire neighborhoods were swallowed up in the falling ground.
A powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.