The easternmost state of Indonesia, Papua, was shaken by a shallow earthquake today, killing four people who were trapped inside a floating restaurant that had crashed into the water.
The magnitude-5.1 earthquake, which was centered at a depth of 22 kilometers and struck residential areas in Jayapura, close to Papua’s northern shore, was reported by the US Geological Survey (13 miles). Earth’s surface is frequently more severely damaged by shallow earthquakes.
The locals “were truly in a panic.” Tri Asih, a citizen of Jayapura, the capital of Papua, claimed, “I was in a car, and I felt like the wheels of the automobile were lifted up.”
Four individuals were alleged to have perished after a floating restaurant collapsed into the water, according to officials.
Speaking during a news conference, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said, “The remains of the four victims have been retrieved.” “The victims were covered by the roof and trapped under the debris of the cafe.”
Rescue divers were looking for potential survivors near the café.
Houses, structures, and medical facilities, according to Mr. Muhari, were all damaged. A few hospital patients were transferred to the hospital’s yard.
Papua has experienced a string of powerful earthquakes since January. Since January 2, 1,079 earthquakes have been registered in Jayapura city and the surrounding areas, with 132 of them severe enough to be felt by locals, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.
Due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Basin, which is home to more than 270 million people, Indonesia, a huge archipelago, is frequently struck by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
At least 331 persons were killed in West Java on November 21 by an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6. Since a quake and tsunami in Sulawesi in 2018 that killed almost 4,340 people, it was the deadliest in Indonesia.
In 2004, a tsunami caused by a devastating earthquake in the Indian Ocean killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen different nations, the most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
