Indonesia's quake kills one, wounds 88

China View (Link) (November 9, 2009)

A powerful quake of 6.7 on Richter scale in West Nusa Tenggara province on Monday has killed one person, wounded 88 others and damaged hundreds of houses, the Health Ministry said here. Head of the crisis center of the ministry Rustam Pakaya said that six out of the 88 suffered from serious injuries.

The quake damaged two health facilities and 282 houses, he told Xinhua. Four school buildings and one religious building collapsed in Bima town, spokesman of the Disaster Management Agency Priyadi Kardono told Xinhua.

The quake occurred at 02:41 Jakarta time (1941 GMT Sunday) with the epicenter 28 km southwest Raba of West Nusa Tenggara province and 25 km under sea bed, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency named only Ardiatno told Xinhua.

The intensity of the quake was felt at 4 to 5 MMI (Modified Mercally Intensity) at Bima, Dompu, at 3 to 4 MMI at Sumbawa Besar,3 MMI at Mataram of the province, he said.

West Sumatra and West Java provinces had been hit by respectively 7.6-magnitude and 7.3-magnitude quakes recently, which killed more than 100 people.

Indonesia with over 230 million people sits on a quake-prone zone called the "Pacific Ring of Fire," where two continental plates meet that cause frequent seismic and volcanic movements.