Dozens injured in Sumatra quake

A massive earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Sumatra island today injuring dozens of people, damaging houses and causing residents to panic and run into the streets.

Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake measured 5.3 on the Richter Scale, but Australian scientists said it was much stronger, registering 7.7, and capable of massive damage and loss of life.

The Hong Kong Observatory and the US Geological Survey both recorded the quake at 7.5.

Seismologists in Singapore said there was a high risk of tsunami – powerful waves caused by seismic activity – in western Sumatra.

At least 35 people, including five in a critical condition, were taken to hospital on Simeulue island, 250 miles from Sumatra’s northern tip, Simeulue hospital chief Dr Hanif said.

“We fear that there are dozens more with even worse injuries. There are no roads on this island. It is very hard to get to the casualties,” he said.

Four government buildings and dozens of shops were damaged, the island’s deputy government leader Ibnu Aban said.

He said he saw dozens of people with injuries brought to a local health clinic. Efforts to contact hospitals were unsuccessful.

“It’s about the same magnitude of the very destructive Gujarat quake in India two years ago,” which killed 13,000 people, said Mark Leonard of Geoscience Australia.

He said the quake was not likely to be as destructive though as it was centred offshore. The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site that the quake was located 13 miles off the coast of northern Sumatra, and was 20.5 miles deep.

But an Indonesian seismologist said the quake – which struck the region at 8.26am local time (1.26 am GMT) – was centred onshore, around 20 miles north of Singkil town in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra.

“This is the strongest earthquake I have felt in the 60 years I have lived here,” said Suprapto Siswapranoto, a retired lawyer in Medan, a large city in northern Sumatra. ”My house is made of strong concrete and the pillars shook strongly.”

Tremors lasting several seconds were felt up to 300 miles to the north east, in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, where people panicked and ran out of buildings, witnesses said.

Aceh province is about 1,100 miles north west of Jakarta.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire.”