Five people have been dead, four others injured, and one bridge collapsed in Aceh province after the Wednesday's quake rocked the province in northern tip of Sumatra island and its surrounding areas, officials said on Thursday.
Acehnese people try to go to higher ground after a powerfull earthquake hit the western coast of Sumatera in Banda Aceh on April 11, 2012. A massive earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island, US and Indonesian monitors reported, prompting an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert. [Xinhua photo]? |
"Five people were killed,.. including one in Banda Aceh, three in Aceh Besar and one in Lhoksemawe," Wahyudi, an official of disaster management and mitigation agency in Aceh province, told Xinhua by phone.
He said that the quake damaged a wall at the prison in the proivincial capital of Banda Aceh, but no reports of prisoners escaping the building.
One bridge in West Aceh was collapsed and four people suffered from injuries in Simeuleu islands of Aceh, an official at the headquarters of the agency in Jakarta told Xinhua over phone.
Emergency relief aids have been prepared and ready for distribution as the officials of the agency have been deployed to three provinces, Aceh, West Sumatra and North Sumatra which hit hardest by the quake, for further assessment of the impact of the natural disaster, according to the official.
Some of areas in the province suffered from the quake shakes with MMI (modified mercally intensity) of 4 to 5, meaning that it is capable to collapse buildings, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Xinhua.
Local television reported five warships had been prepared for distribution of the aids when needed.
Shallow powerful undersea quake of 8.5 magnitude struck off Aceh on Wednesday and followed by strong aftershocks and dozens moderate tremors.