Jakarta (AsiaNews) Thousands of residents of the tiny islands of Tual and Langgur (Maluku province) abandoned their homes last night for safer ground after a tsunami alert was issued.
The mostly Catholic population fled after an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale was registered off the coast of the Maluku Islands, eastern Indonesia, forcing the authorities to sound the alarm, eventually called off.
People found refuge in the villages of Un and Kampung Raja and on Masbait Hill. A local governmental building is now used as a temporary shelter for panicked residents, but the picture of the situation on the two islands remains unclear due to poor communications. It is known though that residents still refuse to go home until they are certain that the tsunami danger is over.
Most of them live along the shores of Tual and Langgur Islands making a living from fishing.
A local said that the "alarm made us panic, scared us to death, so we abandoned our homes as quickly as possible."