JAKARTA (Reuters) – A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Java island on Saturday, killing seven people, seriously injuring two and damaging hundreds of buildings in several cities. as reported by the country’s BNPB agency to mitigate the disaster.
The quake, which occurred at 14:00 (07:00 GMT) local time, was felt in East Java, where 40.7 million people and nearby provinces lived, including the tourist island of Bali, Indonesian media reported.
Ten people were slightly injured, while an unspecified number of people from various villages were taken to evacuation centers as some houses have been destroyed, the BNPB said.
More than 300 homes and dozens of other buildings, including schools, hospitals, government offices and places of worship, were damaged, the agency said.
The figures could change as authorities gather more information on the extent of the victims and the damage.
Media images showed houses flattened in cities near the south coast of East Java, the area closest to the epicenter of the earthquake.
A large gorilla statue at an amusement park in the city of Batu lost its head, the news website Detik.com reported.
The quake occurred in the Indian Ocean 91 km (57 miles) off the south coast of East Java. It had a magnitude of 5.9 at a depth of 96 km, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, which reduced the magnitude of the earthquake from an initial 6.8.
The video shared by social media users showed people standing outside a mall in Malang city amid the strong tremor.
“I felt the earthquake twice, the first time for two seconds and then it stopped, but then it shook again for five seconds,” Edo Afizal, a receptionist at a Blitar hotel, told Reuters by phone.
Indonesia was hit last week by tropical cyclone Seroja, which caused landslides and flash floods that killed more than 170 people on the islands of eastern Nusa Tenggara province.
Riding the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is regularly affected by earthquakes. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Sulawesi in January killed more than 100 people.
Additional reports from Shubham Kalia to Bengaluru; Gayatri Suroyo writing; edited by William Mallard, Jason Neely and Clelia Oziel