42 dead, 15,000 displaced in massive Indonesia quake

Jakarta: A massive 6.2 earthquake that jolted Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province has so far left 42 people dead, over 800 others injured and some 15,000 displaced, while it also destroyed houses and infrastructures, a disaster official said here on Saturday.

Those with serious injuries have been treated in hospitals and field hospitals set up after the shallow under-land quake struck Mamuju city and Majene district on Friday, National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesman Raditya Jati told Xinhua news agency.

As many as 189 people suffered serious injuries in Mamuju and 639 received minor wounds in Majene, the spokesman revealed.

“Now, the patients who were treated in the impacted-hospitals have been removed to the field hospitals,” he told Xinhua.

The quake have destroyed the Mitra Manakarra Hospital in Mamuju, according to Syarifuddin. S., an official of the provincial social office.

The spokesman said that the displaced persons have taken shelters in 10 evacuation centres, and emergency relief aids have been sent to the affected people.

The risk assessment and evacuation of the victims are currently underway.

In the last 30 days, Indonesia was shaken by 3 quakes of magnitude 6.0 or above, 22 quakes between 5.0 and 6.0, 143 quakes between 4.0 and 5.0, 367 quakes between 3.0 and 4.0, and 247 quakes between 2.0 and 3.0, according to authorities.

There were also 13 quakes below magnitude 2.0 which people do not normally feel.

On September 26, 2019, at least 41 people were killed, 1,578 others injured, while more than 150,000 were evacuated when an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the Seram Island in Maluku.

There were at least 1,105 aftershocks in Maluku after the temblor.