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.
“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.
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