Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) –Over the last 24 hours undersea tremors have hit Sumatra in a series of aftershocks. Today yet another strong quake was registered on Sumatra, after the two which hit yesterday, which left at least 10 people dead and hundreds injured. According to official sources it also provoked a small tsunami on the western coast. The quake led to a Tsunami alert for the entire region of the Indian Ocean which was later recalled. The situation however, remains on high alert and the population in chaos.
Indonesia's meteorological agency put this morning’s quake at 7.7 on the Richter scale, while US seismology experts put it closer to 8. The epicentre of the latest quake in 140 km south west of Jambi, central Sumatra, 24 km deep.
Alarm levels remain high after yesterday’s quake was registered in over 4 countries in the region: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Bangladesh. The epicentre was south west of Bengkulu, 620 km north west of Jakarta. Initially the US geophysics’ centre put the first tremor at 7.9. The Indonesian agency then raised the level to 8.4. In Sumatra Mosques were damaged and many walls crumbled; in Jakarta skyscrapers trembled. Then 20 minutes on from the first quake waves three metres high were registered in Padang.
In a press statement UN secretary general Ban Ki i-moon, expressed “deep concern” for the potential consequences of the quake and of the presence of a tsunami in the zone. According to Indonesian Metro TV, a team from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs is on its was to Bengkulu from Aceh, to study the situation.
The population is in a state of panic and many are too scared to return to their homes. The quakes brought back to life the nightmare of the killer wave of 2004 which killed over 130 thousand people in Indonesia alone. The Indonesian archipelagos lies along the Pacific “ring of fire”: a narrow corridor which crosses the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and is home to intense volcanic and tectonic activity.
