Bali (Indonesia), Sep 19 (DPA) An earthquake registering 6.4 on the Richter scale struck off the Indonesian resort island of Bali Saturday, triggering panic among tourists and residents.
At least seven people were injured, most of them with broken bones, said Rusyam Pakaya of the Health Ministry’s crisis centre. He said no deaths had been reported.
Residents and visitors ran out of their homes or hotels in panic when the quake struck Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination at 6.06 a.m. (2306 GMT Friday).
“Guests who were having breakfast ran to the garden in panic,” said Luh Ketut Agi, an employee at a five-star hotel in the upscale Nusa Dua tourist area.
“Luckily, no one was injured, and there’s no damage to the hotel,” she said.
The quake’s epicentre was in the Indian Ocean about 101 kilometres south-east of Nusa Dua, Indonesia’s National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.
It occurred 36 kilometres beneath the seabed, but the quake did not trigger a tsunami. It was the second strong earthquake to jolt Indonesia within several hours.
Another magnitude-6.4 quake struck the eastern Indonesian islands of North Maluku province about five hours earlier. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, sits along the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
On Sep 2, a powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck West Java province, killing more than 70 people and leaving dozens missing. Hundreds of people were injured, and tens of thousands of homes were damaged.
A major earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck in December 2004 off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, leading to the deaths of more than 230,000 people across the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia’s Aceh province alone, more than 170,000 people died.
