Hundreds killed in powerful Indonesia earthquake

A powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island yesterday and killed around 300 people, local officials said. All the deaths were reported from the Indonesian island of Nias. There were no immediate reports of a tsunami but hundreds of thousands fled their homes in panic. The epicentre, off the coast, was very close to that of the December 26 quake which triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia. Monday’s late night earthquake, which struck some 245 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of the city of Medan, spread panic across western Indonesia, Sri Lanka and coastal parts of Malaysia and Thailand, the areas devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami.
There were no signs of a tsunami upto three and a half hours after the quake at 1609 GMT (8.09pm UAE time), but it killed around 300 people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Gunungsitoli, the main town on Indonesia’s Nias island, a local official told Metro TV. About 70 percent of the houses and buildings in the market area in the town of Gunungsitoli collapsed from the quake that struck late Monday, said Sgt. Zulkifli Sirait from the local police station on the island.
“It is possible that hundreds of people trapped in the collapsed buildings died,” he said.
Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on Nias island, told El- Shinta radio station that 296 people had perished in the earthquake. He said that figure was based on reports from humanitarian workers on the island. Nias, off the western coast of Sumatra and about 1,400 km (870 miles) northwest of Jakarta, is a remote and rugged island famed as a surfing paradise. The Pacific tsunami warning centre said the quake had the potential to cause a “widely destructive tsunami” and authorities should take “immediate action,” including evacuating coastlines within 600 miles (1,000 km) of the epicentre.