Jakarta (dpa) – Military and rescue teams were dispatched to Indonesia’s Mentawai island chain on Thursday after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Sumatra island.
There were no reports of serious damage or casualties after Wednesday’s quake but authorities wanted to make sure that people in isolated areas were safe, said Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
Indonesian residents walk to an open space after a strong earthquake shook Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia.
The quake triggered a tsunami warning, which was lifted a few hours later. Life returned to normal in the West Sumatran city of Padang on Thursday, residents said.
Teams from the National Search and Rescue Agency and the military travelled by boat to Mentawai islands, about 150 kilometres off the western coast of Sumatra.
“We have received reports that people there are safe,” Sutopo said. “They sought refuge on higher ground after the quake struck.”
In October 2010, a 7.7-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami off the Mentawai islands, which then had a population of 68,000 people. More than 500 people were killed, while tens of thousands were displaced.
The Mentawai chain comprises 70 islands and islets.
The world’s most quake-prone regions are located around the Pacific Ocean from Japan down to the Philippines and Indonesia and in the Americas, from Alaska to Chile – named the Pacific Ring of Fire, where about 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur.
A powerful earthquake off Sumatra on December 26, 2004 triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 15 countries.
