Panic as strong quake jolts Indonesia's Sumatra island
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-05 14:53

A powerful earthquake measuring up to 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's Sumatra island, causing no damage but spreading panic among people still traumatised by earlier disasters.

The offshore quake hit at 8:52 am (0152 GMT), with an epicentre 190 kilometres (117 miles) west of the coastal town of Sibolga in West Sumatra province, the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The quake was felt strongly in the town of Gunung Sitoli on Nias island, where an 8.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28 killed more than 900 people and left hundreds more homeless or too afraid to return to their houses.

"It was felt very strongly. I was at a market when the quake occured and everybody around me ran away. Many people also ran out of their homes," Julius Poluan, a Christian priest in Gunung Sitoli, told AFP.

He said the tremor caused further damage to buildings and roads in the town that were already badly affected by the March earthquake.

"Had it taken place during night time, I am sure everyone here would have fled to the hills," Poluan said.

The Hong Kong observatory measured the quake at 6.7 on the Richter scale, but Indonesian meteorologists put it at 6.0. The Chinese official news agency Xinhua said China's earthquake monitoring network registered it at 7.3.

Inhabitants of the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan rushed out of their homes and offices and gathered in the streets during the quake, the state Antara news agency reported.

Rachmat, an official with the Jakarta-based meteorology office, said Tuesday's jolt was part of a series of aftershocks that had been rattling the southwestern Sumatra coast following the March earthquake.

Rachmat said the quake shook the town of Gunung Sitoli for almost three minutes and speculated that more aftershocks would take place there in the coming months.

A 9.3-magnitude quake along the same fault-line as Tuesday's tremor triggered last year's Indian Ocean tsunami disaster which left more than 180,000 people dead.

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