With the people of Indonesia not still being recovered from the loss and grief gifted to them in 2004 by the ‘killer tsunami’ that killed 160,000 people on the northern tip of Sumatra, Tuesday was another disaster day for the Indonesians, which may be lost in the list of devastations they have been facing for last two years.
A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck western Indonesia on Tuesday, literally crumpling houses across a large swath of the zone — killing at least 70 people in the lush, injuring hundreds of them, authorities informed fearing that the toll would rise.
Striking hard on the Sumatra Island, its impacts were felt as far away as neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Here some tall buildings had to be evacuated. The devastating quake was followed by several strong aftershocks.
Alpion, a welder in the seaside town of Padang said,
Women were crying out in terror. We all just fled as quickly as we could.
With 70 people being declared killed officially, and the toll fear to be rising, Solok is the worst-affected area. It is a bustling town lying close to the epicenter where two children were killed by falling debris on a school playground, Indonesian Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said in Jakarta.
Photo Credit: AP/Achmad Ibrahim