Earthquake hits Indonesia, with four people killed as floating restaurant collapses into the sea
After an earthquake in Indonesia, a floating restaurant collapsed into the ocean and killed four people.
The Cirita Cafe in Jayapura, Papua crumbled as the magnitude 5.5 quake rocked the eastern province on Thursday 9 February.
Four women were unable to escape the collapsed building in time and were left to die under the rubble. Responders found them dead in Jayapura Bay.
‘A cafe collapsed and four people died there. It fell into the sea,’ Asep Khalid, head of the Jayapura disaster mitigation agency, said in a press release.
Putri Kurita, 30, bolted for the exit at another restaurant fearing it would collapse.
‘I was having lunch when things suddenly swayed, the jolt got much stronger,’ she told AFP.
Other infrastructure, including the Jayapura Mall, was reported to have been damaged. A number of residents were also injured.
The country’s geophysics agency said several aftershocks occurred after the main shock, which lasted a few seconds.
Video clips from the scene show locals stretchered out around the hospital, which was also reportedly damaged in the event.
A car showroom is also shown with broken window frames and glass shattered on the floor.
Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency said the earthquake struck at 1:28 pm local time on Thursday, around one-kilometer southwest of Jayapura at a depth of ten kilometers.
It comes just days after an earthquake in Turkey killed at least 15,000 people across the country and in neighboring Syria.
Agencies initially reported slightly different magnitudes for the earthquake. The country’s meteorological agency put the magnitude at 5.2.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported 5.5. The US Geological Survey claimed a magnitude of 5.1.
