A powerful undersea earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale struck northern Indonesia, causing buildings to collapse, prompting residents to flee, and resulting in at least one fatality. The quake also triggered a minor tsunami on Thursday.
The tremor was intensely felt for 10 to 20 seconds in Bitung, located in North Sulawesi province, and in Ternate city, which is in the neighboring North Maluku province, as reported by the Disaster Management Agency.
These regions lie adjacent to the Molucca Sea, the epicenter of the earthquake.
Preliminary evaluations indicated varying degrees of damage in Ternate, affecting structures such as a church and two houses.
In Bitung, officials are actively conducting damage assessments, according to the agency.
“We had just woken up when the earthquake struck,” said Marten Mandagi, a resident of Bitung. “We all rushed out of the house as the shaking was extremely strong.”
Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency reported a 70-year-old woman died in a building collapse in North Sulawesi’s Manado city and another resident was injured.
At least three injured people were hospitalized in Ternate.
Videos released by the rescue agency showed damaged structures and flattened houses, while television stations broadcast scenes of people rushing outside and gathering in streets to avoid the risk of collapsing buildings.
Dozens of aftershocks followed, including one of 6.2 magnitude.
Authorities are continuing to gather information on damage and possible victims from multiple areas, particularly remote villages, as they work to assess the scope of the disaster.
Tsunami waves up to 30 inches above normal tides were recorded at several monitoring stations around the Molucca Sea coast
Indonesia’s meteorological agency lifted its tsunami warning hours after the quake, and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said there was no destructive threat to the country, which is north of the quake’s epicenter.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 280 million people, sits on major seismic faults and is frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
