JACARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A strong shallow earthquake shook the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia just after midnight, causing landslides and causing people to flee their homes in the night darkness. At least three people died and 24 were injured, but Indonesian officials said they were still collecting information from devastated areas.
In a video released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, a girl trapped in the wreckage of a house screamed for help and said her mother was alive but could not move. “Please help me, it hurts,” said the girl to the rescuers, who replied that they desperately wanted to help her.
In the video, the rescue team said an excavator was needed to save them. Other images in the video show a bridge cut and houses damaged and even destroyed. TV stations reported that the earthquake damaged part of a hospital and the patients were transferred to an emergency tent outside.
Another video showed a father crying desperately, asking people for help to save his children buried under tons of rubble from his home. “My children there … they are trapped inside the house, please help me,” he shouted in a panic.
Some 2,000 displaced people have been evacuated to several temporary shelters. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake on Friday morning was centered 36 kilometers (22 miles) south of Mamuju district, Western Sulawesi province, at a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles), the US Geological Survey said.
At least 62 homes, a public health center and a military office were damaged in Mamuju and landslides occurred in three locations and blocked a main road that connected Mamuju to Majene district, said Raditya Jati, a spokesperson for the disaster agency. . He said the agency is still collecting data in areas affected by the earthquake.
On Thursday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the seabed in the same region, damaging several homes, but without causing apparent casualties.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 260 million people, is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location in the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.