MALANG, Indonesia (AP) – A strong earthquake on Indonesia’s main island, Java, has killed eight people, including a woman whose motorcycle crashed into rocks and damaged more than 1,300 buildings. , officials said Sunday. It did not cause a tsunami.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.0-magnitude earthquake affected the island’s south coast on Saturday at 2 p.m. It centered 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of the city of Sumberpucung in Malang district in East Java province, at a depth of 82 kilometers (51 miles).
Rahmat Triyono, the head of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami center, said the submarine quake had no potential to cause a tsunami. Still, he urged people to stay away from ground slopes or rocks that may have landslides.
This was the second deadly disaster to hit Indonesia this week, after Tropical Cyclone Seroja caused a heavy downpour on Sunday that killed at least 174 people and left 48 missing in eastern Nusa Tenggara province. Some victims were buried in mudslides or solidified lava from a volcanic eruption in November, while others were swept away by floods. Thousands of houses damaged.
Saturday’s quake caused rocks to fall to kill a woman on a motorcycle and seriously injured her husband in Lumajang district in East Java, said Raditya Jati, a spokeswoman for the National Mitigation Agency. Disasters.
He said about 1,189 homes and 150 public facilities, including schools, hospitals and government offices, were damaged. Rescuers recovered four bodies from the ruins of Lumaliang village, Kali Uling. The death of three people was also confirmed by the earthquake in Malang district.
Television reports showed people running in panic from shopping malls and buildings in several cities in the province of East Java.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 270 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 January, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 6,500, while more than 92,000 were displaced after attacking Mamuju and Majene districts in West Sulawesi province. .
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta (Indonesia) contributed to this report.