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Strong earthquake rocks western Indonesia
[October 16, 2009] JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A strong undersea earthquake caused minor damage and made buildings in Indonesia's capital sway Friday, but there were no immediate reports injuries.
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The quake came as Indonesia is still recovering from another, more powerful earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people last month, not far from Friday's temblor. The epicenter of the latest quake was in the Sunda Strait off the western coast of Java and had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. Suhardjono, an official at the agency who like many Indonesian goes by a single name, said it was not powerful enough to cause a tsunami. "We ran away from the house when the tremor hit our coastal village," said Enjen, a local fisherman who lives near the epicenter. Some houses had cracked walls and roof tiles fell down, he said. Residents in Merak, another coastal area, briefly ran outdoors in panic but returned to their houses and offices when the shaking stopped, said witness Anugerah Wijaya. On Sept. 30, a 7.6 magnitude quake devastated large areas of neighboring island of Sumatra, flattening huge numbers of buildings and houses and making hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The epicenter of that quake was a few hundred miles (kilometers) north of Friday's quake. The U.S. Geological Survey put the strength of Friday's earthquake at 6.5 and said it had a depth of 35 miles (55 kilometers). |
