Indonesia:Indonesia's Sumatra island was hit by a series of aftershocks yesterday after a powerful earthquake toppled hundreds of buildings, killing at least 10 people and burying many others.
A seismologist said that the region was lucky to have escaped a tsunami similar to the one which killed more than 280,000 people in 2004.
"A tsunami was created by the earthquake, it just travelled in a south-west direction away from land," said Mike Turnbull, of Central Queensland University.
But the threat lingered and Indonesia's meteorology agency issued the latest in a series of tsunami warnings after another strong earthquake struck Sumatra. It lifted the warning after a few hours.
The damage from the initial quake was "relatively less" than feared, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters.
Wednesday's 8.4 magnitude quake, which was felt in neighbouring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, cut communications and sparked panic.
That quake and more than 20 subsequent tremors, ranging in intensity from 4.9 to 7.8, repeatedly set off tsunami warnings in Indian Ocean countries. But there were no reports of surges hitting coastlines. The 2004 tsunami was caused by a quake in excess of magnitude 9.
Meanwhile, roads in the north of Bengkulu province were lined with tents as residents did not want to return to their damaged homes, fearing more tremors. People huddled by fires outdoors to keep warm in drizzling rain.
Rustam Pakaya, head of the Indonesian health ministry's crisis centre in Jakarta, said that 10 people had been killed and 51 injured across the region.
"The north Bengkulu area has been identified as the worst hit, with half the area destroyed," he said. Nearly 800 houses had collapsed and many more were damaged in the area, but the extent of the destruction was not fully known because of the difficulty in reaching or contacting some areas.
- (Reuters)