A strong earthquake hits the main island of Indonesia, killing one person and damaging dozens of homes

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People wait outside their homes after the earthquake in Bantul district, outside Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Friday, June 30, 2023. | Image source: AP

A powerful undersea earthquake struck parts of Indonesia’s densely populated main island of Java late Friday, June 30, 2023, causing panic as it killed at least one person, injured two others and damaged dozens of homes.

The US Geological Survey said that the quake, which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale, was centered 84 kilometers southwest of the village of Pampangliburo, located in the Bantul district of the special province of Yogyakarta. It occurred at a depth of 86 km.

A 67-year-old woman in Bantul died when she fell while fleeing in panic and at least two other residents were injured, said Abdul Mahari, a spokesman for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency.

Mahari said the quake damaged at least 93 homes as well as other buildings such as schools, health centers, places of worship and government facilities in Yogyakarta and the neighboring provinces of Central and East Java.

Evacuations ordered

Television reports showed that local residents in Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces were in a state of panic with houses and buildings shaking for several seconds. Some places ordered evacuations, which sent large numbers of people onto the streets.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said there was no danger of a tsunami but warned of possible aftershocks. The agency measured the initial magnitude of the quake at 6.4. Variations in early measurements of earthquakes are common.

Yogyakarta is an ancient center of Javanese culture and the seat of centuries-old royal dynasties. It’s home to ninth-century Borobudur – nine stone tiers stacked like a wedding cake and decorated with hundreds of Buddha statues and relief panels – and the towering Hindu temple complex of Prambanan, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in the country, is also in the province.

In 2006, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Yogyakarta killed more than 6,200 people and injured more than 130,000, but caused only minor damage to the two temples.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin known as the “Ring of Fire”.

In 2004, a very strong earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, mostly in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

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