JAKARTA, Nov 25: A strong earthquake of 6.7-magnitude struck off Sumbawa island in southeastern Indonesia early on Monday, injuring at least 17 people and prompting a tsunami warning that was later lifted, officials said.
The Indonesian meteorological agency measured the quake at 6.7, though the US Geological Survey later revised its same initial calculation down to 6.4.
The earthquake, which hit at 12:02 am (1602 GMT), occurred 44 kilometres west of Raba and 349 kilometres east of Denpasar, Bali, at a depth of 30 kilometres, the USGS said.
“The hospital is treating 17 injured people, most of them wounded from collapsing walls,” said Suriyani, an official at the general hospital in Dompu district on Sumbawa.
“Of these two people were seriously injured, with open wounds to the head and broken bones,” she said.
Local Metro TV reported that a five-year-old boy had died, but Suriyani said that although she had heard a report of the death no body had arrived at the hospital and she could not confirm the fatality.
She said those injured had come from Monta village, about five kilometres from the hospital.
The quake and an aftershock of 5.0-magnitude that struck just over an hour later caused panic at a hospital in Raba town, about 50 kilometres from Dompu.
Its 300 patients were evacuated twice but there were no reports of casualties in the area, a worker said.—AFP
