APD | Strong earthquake in Indonesia’s eastern region kills 23

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

**JAKARTA, Sept. 27 (APD) ** - The 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku has killed 23 residents from the collapsing houses and buildings, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Friday.

The agency said at least 100 people were injured in the event that occurred around 08:46 a.m. local time on Thursday. Around 15,000 people were currently sheltered in temporary shelters.

The earthquake has damaged some 117 houses and buildings in the most affected areas around the province’s capital of Ambon, the agency said.

Efforts to restore electricity supply are being carried out at present as the power generation supplying power throughout the spice island was damaged in the earthquake.

Located in Indonesia’s eastern region, Maluku is inhabited by 1.7 million of population, becoming one of the nation’s least populous provinces.

As it sits in the world’s ‘ring of fire’ vault line, Indonesia saw frequent powerful earthquake that has claimed significant number of lives.

The nation saw a devastating 7.5 magnitude of the earthquake that followed by a tsunami in Central Sulawesi province’s cities of Palu and Donggala last year that left more than 4.300 ones killed or missing.

The westernmost province of Aceh saw disastrous earthquake at a magnitude of 9.1 which immediately followed by huge tsunami that killed at least 170,000 in the province and neighboring North Sumatra province in late 2004. In total death toll in countries swept by the Indian tsunami prompted by the earthquake in Aceh, waters reached 220,000.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)