Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Indonesia's geophysics agency says that a 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the island of...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Indonesia's geophysics agency says that a 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the island of Sumatra. This is the third earthquake to hit the area since Monday morning.
Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency (BMKG) recorded the shallow quake just before 10:30 a.m. off the Mentawai islands, which are off Sumatra's west coast. They said it did not cause a tsunami warning.
A BMKG spokesperson said that the agency had originally said the magnitude was 6.4, but that number was changed to 6.1.
Since Monday morning, the area has been hit by three earthquakes that got stronger as they went on. The first was a 5.2-magnitude tremor before dawn, followed by a 5.4-magnitude quake less than an hour later.
The disaster agency said in a statement that people on the Mentawai islands, in the provincial capital of Padang, and in the nearby mountainous area of Bukitinggi felt the 6.1-magnitude earthquake strongly for several seconds.
The agency said that no one had been hurt, but some buildings on Siberut island had minor damage.
Novriadi, a local disaster official in the Mentawai islands, told Reuters that people in several villages had been moved to higher ground and that a church, school, and health centre had been slightly damaged.
The disaster agency told people not to panic and warned them that more quakes could happen.
In 2009, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Padang. It killed more than 1,100 people, hurt many more, and destroyed a lot of the city.
Indonesia is in the middle of the "Pacific Ring of Fire," which is where different tectonic plates of the Earth's crust meet and cause a lot of earthquakes.
