5 Dead in Massive Quakes off Indonesia’s Sumatra
Five people died and at least seven were injured as massive earthquakes struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said Thursday.
They said they believed at least two people died of heart attacks and three others died of shock.
"Based on data collected on victims and damage, five people died, one person is critically injured and six others had minor injuries," National Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
All of the casualties were in Aceh province, where 170,000 people died in a 2004 tsunami, he said.
Nugroho said the critically injured victim was a child who fell from a tree during the quake in Aceh province Wednesday.
Communities in the most vulnerable areas on Sumatra island have gone back to their daily lives, Nugroho said.
A tsunami watch around the Indian Ocean was lifted hours after the two earthquakes struck off Sumatra, sending terrified people fleeing from the coast.
The 8.6-magnitude quake hit 431 kilometers (268 miles) off the city of Banda Aceh at 0838 GMT, and was followed by another undersea quake measured at 8.2, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Wednesday's quake was felt as far afield as Thailand, where skyscrapers in the capital Bangkok swayed. India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Reunion Island, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar all issued alerts or evacuation orders which were later lifted.
Waves of up to 80 centimeters (31 inches) hit Indonesia's Aceh province, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
U.S. seismologists then cancelled the tsunami warning, saying the quakes had generated only small waves and were nowhere near the scale of the disasters that struck Asia in 2004 and Japan last year.
Source: Agence France Presse
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