7.5-magnitude earthquake shakes north Peru

LIMA, Peru - A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck northern Peru on Sunday, destroying buildings including a church tower, injuring at least two people and sending shock waves across the region.

The strong quake hit at 5:52 am (1052 GMT) at a depth of 131 kilometers (81 miles), according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru.

It also caused damage in neighboring Ecuador.

The epicenter was 98 kilometers east of the small Peruvian town of Santa Maria de Nieva in the Peruvian Amazon -- a sparsely populated area inhabited by Amazonian indigenous people.

"The movement has been immense," the town's mayor, Hector Requejo, told RPP radio. He said some wood and adobe houses had collapsed.

The 14-meter (45-foot) tower of a colonial-era church collapsed in the La Jalca district, also in the Amazon.

Widespread power outages were reported, and the Civil Defense department reported two injured.

The deep quake was felt in almost half of the country, including coastal and Andean regions, and the capital Lima.

"We have all taken to the streets, we are very scared," a listener called Lucia told RPP radio from the northern town of Chota.

"All my solidarity with the people of Amazonas in the face of the strong earthquake," Peruvian President Pedro Castillo said on Twitter. "You are not alone, brothers."

He said he had ordered all relevant ministries "to take immediate actions."

In Lima, more than 1,000 kilometers south of the epicenter, the tremor was felt with less intensity but lasted long enough to prompt some people to take to the streets. 

No tsunami warning was issued by US monitors after the quake.

The Peruvian capital, with a population of 10 million, had been shaken hours before by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. 

There were no casualties after the first quake, which had its epicenter west of Callao, Lima's neighboring port.

Peru is shaken by at least 400 perceptible earthquakes every year, as it is located in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire -- an area of extensive seismic activity that extends along the west coast of the American continent. 

A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake on August 15, 2007, struck Peru's central coast, causing more than 500 deaths.

Agence France-Presse

Death toll in Indonesia quake-tsunami tops 800

PALU, Indonesia - The death toll from a powerful earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia leaped to 832 Sunday, as stunned people on the stricken island of Sulawesi struggled to find food and water and looting spread.

The new toll announced by the national disaster agency was almost double the previous figure. 

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the final number of dead could be in the "thousands" as many regions have still not been reached.

"It feels very tense," said 35-year-old mother Risa Kusuma, comforting her feverish baby boy at an evacuation center in the gutted coastal city of Palu. "Every minute an ambulance brings in bodies. Clean water is scarce. The mini markets are looted everywhere."

Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday broadcast footage from a coastal community in Donggala, close to the epicenter of the quake, where some waterfront homes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higher ground after the quake struck.

"When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills," a man identified as Iswan told Metro TV. 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived in the region Sunday afternoon to see the devastation for himself.

In Palu city on Sunday, aid was trickling in, the Indonesian military had been deployed and search-and-rescue workers were doggedly combing the rubble for survivors -- looking for as many as 150 people at one upscale hotel alone. 

"We managed to pull out a woman alive from the Hotel Roa-Roa last night," Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue agency, told AFP. "We even heard people calling for help there yesterday."

"What we now desperately need is heavy machinery to clear the rubble. I have my staff on the ground, but it's impossible just to rely on their strength alone to clear this."

There were also concerns over the whereabouts of hundreds of people who had been preparing for a beach festival when the 7.5-magnitude quake struck Friday, sparking a tsunami that ripped apart the city's coastline.

A Facebook page was created by worried relatives who posted pictures of still-missing family members in the hopes of finding them alive.

The disaster agency said it believed about 61 foreigners were in Palu when the quake struck, with most accounted for and safe.

Three French nationals and a South Korean, who may have been staying at a flattened hotel, had not yet been accounted for, it added.

Amid the leveled trees, overturned cars, concertinaed homes and flotsam tossed up to 50 meters inland, survivors and rescuers struggled to come to grips with the scale of the disaster.

On Saturday evening, residents fashioned makeshift bamboo shelters or slept out on dusty playing fields, fearing powerful aftershocks would topple damaged homes and bring yet more carnage.

C-130 military transport aircraft with relief supplies managed to land at the main airport in Palu, which re-opened to humanitarian flights and limited commercial flights, but only to pilots able to land by sight alone.

Satellite imagery provided by regional relief teams showed the severe damage at some of the area's major sea ports, with large ships tossed on land, quays and bridges trashed and shipping containers thrown around.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of those injured, with many people being treated in the open air. There were widespread power blackouts.

"We all panicked and ran out of the house" when the quake hit, said Anser Bachmid, a 39-year-old Palu resident. "People here need aid -- food, drink, clean water."

'I JUST RAN' 

Dramatic video footage captured from the top floor of a parking ramp as the tsunami rolled in showed waves bringing down several buildings and inundating a large mosque.

"I just ran when I saw the waves hitting homes on the coastline," said Palu resident Rusidanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

About 17,000 people had been evacuated, the government disaster agency said and that number was expected to soar.

"This was a terrifying double disaster," said Jan Gelfand, a Jakarta-based official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"The Indonesian Red Cross is racing to help survivors."

Images showed a double-arched yellow bridge had collapsed with its two metal arches twisted as cars bobbed in the water below.

A key access road had been badly damaged and was partially blocked by landslides, the disaster agency said.

DISASTER PRONE 

Friday's tremor was also felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on neighboring Kalimantan, Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

As many as 2.4 million people could have felt the quake, the disaster agency said.

The initial quake struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world's biggest Muslim majority country on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy.

Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.

It lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Earlier this year, a series of powerful quakes hit Lombok, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighboring Sumbawa.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of other deadly quakes including a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra in December 2004.

That Boxing Day quake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Powerful quake rocks Indonesia, 'many' buildings collapse

MAKASSAR - Indonesia was rocked by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake Friday, with the national disaster agency saying that "many" buildings had collapsed in the aftermath of the huge tremor.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.

"There are reports that many buildings collapsed in the earthquake," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement. 

"Residents panicked and scattered out of their homes."

Pictures supplied by the agency showed a badly damaged shopping mall in the city of Palu where at least one floor had collapsed onto the storey below. 

Other pictures showed major damage to buildings, with rubble strewn about the road and large cracks running through pavement.

Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to hard-hit areas, Nugroho said.

The quake hit central Sulawesi island at a shallow depth of some 10 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said, just hours after a smaller jolt killed at least one person in the same part of the country.

The disaster agency briefly issued a tsunami warning before lifting it.

AFP phone calls to several regional hospitals went unanswered.

The latest quake was a higher magnitude than those that killed hundreds on the island of Lombok earlier this year.

Friday's tremor was centered 78 kilometers north of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, but was felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on the neighboring island of Kalimantan, Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

The initial tremor struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world's biggest Muslim majority country on the holiest day of the week when mosques would be especially busy. 

It was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, including one measuring 5.7 magnitude.

'Earthquake, earthquake!'

"I was about to start prayers but then I heard people shouting 'earthquake! earthquake!' so I stopped," Andi Temmaeli from Wajo, south of Palu, told AFP.

Lisa Soba Palloan, a resident of Toraja, also south of Palu, said locals felt several quakes Friday.

"The last one was quite big," she said.

"Everyone was getting out their homes, shouting in fear."

Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.

The Southeast Asian archipelago nation lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

This summer, a series of powerful quakes hit Lombok, killing over 550 people on the holiday island and neighboring Sumbawa. 

Some 1,500 people were injured and about 400,000 residents were displaced after their homes were destroyed.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of other deadly quakes including a devastating 9.1 magnitude tremor that struck off the coast of Sumatra in 2004.

That quake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

The Boxing Day disaster was the world's third-biggest quake since 1900, and lifted the ocean floor in some places by 15 meters.

Indonesia's Aceh province was the hardest hit area, but the tsunami affected coastal areas as far away as Africa.

Among the country's other big earthquakes, a 6.3-magnitude quake in 2006 rocked a densely populated region of Java near the city of Yogyakarta, killing around 6,000 people and injuring 38,000.

More than 420,000 people were left homeless and some 157,000 houses were destroyed.

A year earlier, in 2005, a quake measuring 8.7 magnitude struck off the coast of Sumatra, which is particularly prone to quakes, killing 900 people and injuring 6,000.

It caused widespread destruction on the western island of Nias.

source: news.abs-cbn.com