Earthquake jolts Indonesia on tsunami anniversary

A strong earthquake struck deep under the sea in eastern Indonesia today, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, officials said.

The earthquake of a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 struck on the fifth anniversary of another quake that spawned the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim.

The Boxing Day 2004 tsunami was sparked by a 9.2-magnitude underwater quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Today’s quake was at a depth of 35 miles, too far below the earth’s surface to cause a tsunami, said Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency seismologist Paulus Prihandoyo.

The quake had its epicentre about 165 miles north of Saumlaki and about 1,680 miles east of the capital Jakarta, the US Geological Survey said.

Residents in Saumlaki said the quake panicked people and caused an electricity blackout, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

Indonesia sits above a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off West Sumatra on September 30 and killed hundreds of people and toppled hundreds of homes and buildings.

To mark the anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, Buddhist monks chanted on white-sand beaches in Thailand and thousands prayed at mosques in Indonesia.

In Thailand, hundreds of residents and foreigners returned to the beaches on the island of Phuket to recall one of the worst natural disasters of modern times.

A moment of silence was observed on Phuket’s Patong Beach, a popular strip of hotels and restaurants, to mark the moment the tsunami struck.

Buddhist monks in bright orange robes chanted prayers. Onlookers wept and embraced.

Giorgio Capriccioli, an Italian who lives on Phuket, carried a bouquet of white flowers into the ocean.

He waded knee-deep in water that five years ago was clogged with corpses and cast the flowers adrift to honour the memory of two friends. His wife owns several beach-front shops but decided not to go to work the morning the tsunami struck.

“My wife would be dead if it weren’t for the fact that she were pregnant and didn’t go to work that day,” he said at a ceremony that also attracted tourists as well as Thai villagers.

The ceremonies on Phuket were to culminate tonight with candle-lighting ceremonies and the release of hundreds of light-filled lanterns into the sky.

Thousands of survivors in Indonesia’s Aceh province, which was hardest-hit, held prayer services at mosques and beside the mass graves where tens of thousands were buried. Indonesia’s loss of about 167,000 accounted for more than half the total death toll.

More than $13bn (€14.4bn) in aid money poured in from around the world, nearly half for Aceh, where bridges, homes and full city blocks of cement buildings had collapsed.

A huge reconstruction effort has rebuilt Aceh, providing more than 140,000 new homes, 2,227 miles of roads, 1,500 schools and 1,047 hospitals.

“After five years ... the people of Aceh have risen and have a new life,” Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono told a crowd gathered near Ulee Lheue port in Aceh. Like many Indonesians he uses only a single name

“Their struggle to rise from tsunami tragedy has inspired the people in this country, and around the region,” said Boediono.

Traffic across Sri Lanka came to a standstill as people around the country observed two minutes of silence for the 35,000 people who died there. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake presided over a ceremony in north-western Kurunegala that was broadcast on live television.