A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit the night of Thursday through Friday on the island of Celebes, Indonesia. It has killed 34 people so far and injured several hundred more. Panic gripped the inhabitants of the west of this island which had already suffered, in 2018, a major earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami.
Rescue workers are currently searching the rubble of several collapsed buildings in the hope of finding survivors. But the damage is significant. In Mamuju, the most affected city in the region, rescuers were looking for more than a dozen patients and medical personnel missing under the rubble of a hospital.
Search for survivors at Mitra Manakarra Hospital, in Mamuju, on the island. About twenty people are said to be trapped in the rubble. (Photo by Firdaus / AFP)
AFP
“The hospital is destroyed”
“According to the latest information there are 26 dead, all in the city of Mamuju,” said Ali Rahman, head of the local disaster management agency. “This number could rise (…) many dead are buried in the rubble”. Eight other people died in Majene, another locality in the Mamuju region, another local agency official said.
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“The hospital is destroyed. It has collapsed. There are patients and hospital staff trapped in the rubble and we are evacuating them,” a Mamuju relief official told Arianto. He estimated the number of people trapped between ten and twenty, without being able to confirm whether they were alive.
The extent of the damage in the provincial capital of some 110,000 inhabitants was not immediately known.
“The shaking was very strong”
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake, according to the American Institute of Geophysics, occurred at 2:18 a.m. local time (Thursday 7:18 p.m. French time) on Friday. The epicenter of the earthquake was located 36 km south of Mamuju, at a relatively shallow depth of 18 km, the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) said.
Images of the area show residents fleeing on motorbikes and cars, passing collapsed tin roofs and damaged buildings. “The roads are bursting, and several buildings have collapsed,” said Hendra, a 28-year-old witness living in Mamuju. “The shock was very strong (…) I was awakened and I fled with my wife”.
Collapsed buildings in the west of the island. SAR Hidayatullah / Anadolu Agency
Anadolu Agency via AFP
The meteorology and geophysics agency has warned of the possibility of further tremors and asks residents to avoid the seaside because of the risk of a tsunami. “The aftershocks could be as strong or stronger than this morning,” said Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of the agency.
As of Thursday, a 5.8 tremor had already been felt in the region, without causing significant damage. Landslides followed the earthquake, cutting off access to one of the province’s main roads, and the local Mamuju airport was also damaged. The Indonesian archipelago is located on the Pacific “ring of fire”, an area of strong seismic activity.
