MALANG, Indonesia (AP) – A strong earthquake on Indonesia’s main island of Java has killed eight people, including a woman whose motorcycle was hit by falling rocks and damaged more than 1,300 buildings, officials said on Sunday. It did not trigger a tsunami.
The US geological study said the magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred off the south coast of the island at 14:00 on Saturday. It was centered 45 kilometers south of Sumberpucung in the Malang district of East Java province, at a depth of 82 kilometers (51 miles).
Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquake and tsunami center in Indonesia, said the quake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami. However, he urged people to stay away from slopes or rocks that may have landslides.
It was the second deadly disaster to hit Indonesia this week after tropical cyclone Seroja caused heavy rain on Sunday that killed at least 174 people and left another 48 missing in the eastern Nusa Tenggara province. Some of the victims were buried in either landslides or solidified lava from a November volcanic eruption, while others were swept away by flash floods. Thousands of damaged houses.
Saturday’s quake caused stones to kill a woman on a motorcycle and seriously injured her husband in Lumajang district of East Java, said Raditya Jati, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
He said about 1,189 homes and 150 public facilities, including schools, hospitals and government offices, were damaged. Rescuers recovered four bodies from the rubble of Kali Uling village in Lumajang. Three people were also confirmed killed by the earthquake in Malang district.
Television reports showed people fleeing in panic from malls and buildings in several cities in the province of East Java.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 270 million people, is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
In January, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 6,500, while more than 92,000 were displaced after hitting Mamuju and Majene districts in West Sulawesi province.
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini of Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.