On Wednesday during the early hours, an earthquake of magnitude 6.4, on the Richter scale, rocked the Aceh province in Indonesia. The earthquake originated undersea and caused several casualties and property loss near the epicenter. The U.S., Geological Survey said that the shallow earthquake struck at 5:03 A.M., and was centered about 10 kilometers north of Reuleut, a town in northern Aceh, at a depth of 17.2 kilometers. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, located in the Indian ocean and a part of ‘Ring of Fire.’ Indonesia is prone to frequent earthquakes and active volcanic mountains.
Pidie Jaya, the Regency of Aceh district was highly affected. The officials of Pidie Jaya Regency said, “Eighteen have died so far, based on data from the hospital. Some of the fatalities are children.” It also released that out of the 18 deceased, seven were children. The local hospitals are troubled by the number of people arriving with injuries. They added, “The hospital here couldn’t take the patients, so we sent some to the neighboring district.”
There has been a huge damage to several mosques, buildings and other property in the Pidie Jaya Regency. Search for survivors is on in this region and heavy equipment has been disbursed for the search and rescue operations. Residents of nearby areas ran out after experiencing the tremors in the early hours. Aceh was one of the provinces that had the highest casualties in the 2004 earthquake. In December 2004, a massive earthquake near the Sumatra island triggered a huge tsunami, that killed at least 230,000 people in various countries. At least five aftershocks have been felt after 2004, this is supposedly one such aftershocks. Indonesia’s Climate, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency released a statement saying quake does not have the potential to trigger an earthquake.
