Indonesia, September 30: At least 21 people have been killed and thousands are trapped underneath rubble after a major earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island last night, officials said.
Large buildings, including hospitals and hotels, caved in while fires raged in the coastal city of Padang, home to nearly a million people, as communications and power remained cut hours after the 7.6-magnitude quake.
“Houses and buildings have collapsed, causing thousands of people to be trapped inside in the rubble,” Health Ministry crisis centre head Rustam Pakaya said, adding that a major city hospital was among the destroyed buildings.
Rescue teams and doctors have been sent and were expected to arrive in about 10 hours, Mr Pakaya said.
Local media reported that panicked residents rushed from their homes during the quake, which struck off Sumatra’s west coast at about 5pm (8pm AEST), 47km northwest of Padang.
“A number of hotels in Padang have been destroyed,” Indonesian tsunami warning head Rahmat Triyono said, adding the agency did not release a tsunami alert.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii however issued a tsunami watch for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand, but later cancelled it.
“Up to now we haven’t been able to reach Padang, communications have been cut,” Triyono said amid fears the death toll could rise sharply.
The quake was felt in the capital Jakarta, 940km away, and sent frightened office workers streaming out of buildings in nearby Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
“The shaking was the worst I had ever felt,” Yuliarni, a resident of Pariaman district outside Padang, told TVOne news channel.
“Houses have collapsed, the lights and electricity were cut off,” she said.
The quake caused a landslide that destroyed houses at Lake Maninjau inland from Padang, local resident Hafiz told the channel.
“Part of the roof of the arrival hall at the Padang airport collapsed but nobody was injured. The runway is okay. The airport has been closed but will reopen at 7am tomorrow,” an official of airport operator company Angkasa Pura II, Hariyanto, said.
Geologists have said Padang, which lies near the colliding Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, was the most likely in the country to fall victim to the next major quake or tsunami.
“There will be aftershocks but it’s difficult to predict whether there will be a bigger quake,” Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Centre head Surono said.
“There are three big volcanoes in West Sumatra – Merapi, Talang and Tandikat. We fear that this quake might cause volcanic eruptions there,” he said.
—Agencies