JAKARTA: At least three people were killed and large buildings including a hotel collapsed when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Sulawesi island on Friday, authorities said.
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“Three people are dead and 24 are injured,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Jati.
The country’s search-and-rescue agency confirmed that at least one hotel had collapsed after the quake struck at 2.18am local time on Friday (18:18 GMT Thursday).
The epicentre was 36 kilometres (22 miles) south of Mamuju, the capital of West Sulawesi, and the quake had a depth of 18 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey said.
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Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
On Dec 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia. – AFP