Powerful earthquake rocks Sumatra, Indonesia, kills 1

A strong and shallow earthquake shook the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Saturday, killing one resident, injuring 11 and damaging more than a dozen houses and buildings, police said.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck about 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) northeast of Sibolga, a coastal town in North Sumatra province, according to the US Geological Survey. It was 13 kilometers (8 miles) deep.

The pre-dawn quake was followed by two 5.0 magnitude aftershocks.

A 62-year-old man died of a heart attack while running to safety in the village of Tarutung, which is closest to the epicenter, local police chief Johansson Sianturi said. Eleven people were injured and at least 15 houses and buildings were damaged in the village, he said.

Authorities are still investigating the full extent of the damage.

Footage released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed several residents evacuating an injured man in a van to a hospital as panicked voices shouted for help. The agency also showed several people receiving treatment and walls cracked by the quake.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 270 million people, is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In February, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

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