A total of 48 villagers were injured and 377 houses damaged after a shallow earthquake of 5.6-magnitude struck off West Sumatra province of western Indonesia on Thursday, disaster agency official said.
Over 190 people escaped the natural disaster which hit Solok Selatan district, and took shelters at makeshift tents and relatives’ houses, said Erwin S.T, head of emergency and logistic department of the disaster agency in the district.
“The quake forces 192 villagers to flee home and take shelter,” he told Xinhua over phone from the district.
The quake also damaged school buildings, mosques, and health clinics, the official said, adding that risks assessment of the impact of the quake is still under way.
The quake was centered 38 km northeast of Pasaman town with a depth of 10 km, Aziz Widiarso, an official in charge at the meteorology and geophysics agency, told Xinhua by phone.
Indonesia is prone to quakes as it sits on a vulnerable quake-affected zone called “the Pacific Ring of Fire.”
