A powerful earthquake occurred in Sumatra in Indonesia, 1 person died

A strong shallow earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Saturday, killing one resident, injuring 11 and damaging more than a dozen homes and buildings, police said.

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck about 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) northeast of Sibolga, a coastal town in North Sumatra province, the US Geological Survey said. Its depth was 13 kilometers (8 miles).

The pre-dawn earthquake was followed by two 5.0-magnitude aftershocks.

A 62-year-old man died from a a heart attack while fleeing to safety in the village of Tarutung, which is closest to the epicenter, said local police chief Johansson Sianturi. Eleven people were injured and at least 15 houses and buildings were damaged in the village, he said.

Authorities were still assessing the damage.

Footage released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency showed several residents evacuating the victim in a van to hospital as panicked voices screamed for help. The agency also showed several people receiving treatment and walls cracked by the earthquake.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the “ring of fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Ocean basin.

In February, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra province killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460. In January 2021, a magnitude More than 100 people were killed and nearly 6,500 injured in the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in West Sulawesi province.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

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