Magnitude 7.7 Quake Hits Eastern Indonesia, Killing at Least Two
By Dewi Kurniawati
JAKARTA, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia before dawn on Saturday, killing at least two people and triggering a brief tsunami warning that sent coastal communities scrambling to higher ground, officials said.
The quake, which struck at 4:58 a.m. local time at a depth of 15 kilometers (9 miles), was followed by dozens of aftershocks, according to the country's geophysics agency, BMKG. The initial tremor was felt strongly across East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, and parts of South Sulawesi, with many residents reporting that the shaking lasted about a minute.
The disaster mitigation agency, BNPB, confirmed two deaths and one injury in Sikka Regency, on the eastern part of Flores Island. In the regency's main town of Maumere, a video verified by Reuters showed part of a building reduced to dust and rubble as people screamed and ran through the streets.
Tsunami waves of less than one meter (3 feet) were recorded in several areas, but the tsunami warning was lifted roughly three hours after the quake. Australia's tsunami warning center said the undersea earthquake posed "no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories."
Television footage from Kompas TV showed hospital patients being moved outside in the Ende district of East Nusa Tenggara, and local news outlet Kompas.com reported at least one landslide in the region.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a highly seismically active zone where tectonic plates collide, making the archipelago one of the world's most disaster-prone nations. Earthquakes of this size are capable of unleashing destructive tsunamis, but Saturday's event produced only modest waves, sparing the region from a larger catastrophe.
BNPB said most people who felt the shock immediately fled their homes, an instinct sharpened by years of deadly quakes and tsunami drills. The agency was still assessing damage in remote areas, where communication and road access can be limited.
(Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati, Bernadette Christina, Fransiska Nangoy and Steffano Sulaiman in Jakarta; Additional reporting by Carlos Méndez and Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Mark Porter, Lisa Shumaker and William Mallard)