Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The North Tapanuli Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) in North Sumatra has recorded to date that at least one person has been killed and 24 injured, with 952 homes damaged, following a 6-magnitude earthquake that hit in the early hours of Saturday morning.
North Tapanuli BPBD secretary Jonner Simanjuntak said most victims had suffered head injuries and broken bones.
The quake is also thought to have caused a short circuit and the resulting blaze that razed 19 shops at Sarullah Market in Pahae Jahe district. The agency also reported that 65 houses of worship were damaged.
North Sumatra BPBD chief Abdul Haris Lubis said the provincial administration was still gathering data on infrastructure damage, which so far included roads damaged in landslides.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the quake struck at approximately 2:24 a.m. on Oct. 1, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers around 15 km northwest of North Tapanuli.
As of Sunday morning, BMKG had recorded 92 aftershocks.
The country experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanic activities, as it is located on the Ring of Fire.
In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake killed more than 2,200 people in Palu, Central Sulawesi. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, a 9.1-magnitude quake with an epicenter off the coast of Aceh, killed more than 170,000 people in Indonesia alone, out of around 230,000 total fatalities. (dre)