A powerful and relatively shallow earthquake struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia on Saturday, causing damage to more than a dozen homes and buildings and taking the life of one local citizen, according to the police.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the epicentre of the 5.9 magnitude earthquake was located approximately 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) northeast of Sibolga, a seaside city in the province of North Sumatra. It was 13 kilometres (8 miles) deep.
After the earthquake in Indonesia that occurred the morning before, there were two aftershocks that measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
According to the local police commander Johanson Sianturi, a guy who was 62 years old and was trying to get to safety in the village of Tarutung, which is the one that is located the closest to the epicentre, died of a heart attack. According to him, there have been eleven persons hurt and at least fifteen houses and other buildings damaged in the community.
The authorities were still gathering information to determine the full scope of the damage.
A video that was made public by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed a group of locals driving a wounded individual to the hospital in a vehicle while other people screamed for assistance in a state of terror. The agency also broadcast footage of many earthquake victims seeking medical attention as well as images of damaged buildings.
Because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, Indonesia, a vast archipelago with more than 270 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. This is due to the fact that the “Ring of Fire” is located in the Pacific Basin.
In the month of February, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck the West Sumatra province, causing at least 25 deaths and more than 460 injuries. In the month of January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the province of West Sulawesi, causing more than 100 fatalities and approximately 6,500 injuries.
Nearly 230,000 people were murdered in a dozen different countries as a result of a strong earthquake and tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004. The majority of these deaths occurred in Indonesia.
