JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – A strong, shallow earthquake shook the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia just after midnight, causing landslides and people fleeing their homes in the nighttime darkness. At least three people had died and 24 were injured, but Indonesian officials said they were still gathering information from devastated areas.
In a video released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, a girl trapped in the wreckage of a house screamed for help, saying her mother was alive but unable to move. “Please help me, it’s hurt,” the girl said to the rescuers, who replied that they were desperate to help her.
In the video, rescuers said it needed an excavator to rescue them. Other images in the video showed a severed bridge and damaged and even flattened houses. TV stations reported that the earthquake damaged part of a hospital and that patients were moved outside to an emergency tent.
Another video showed a father crying hopelessly and asking for help from people to save his children buried under tons of his house rubble. “My kids there … they are trapped inside, please help,” he panicked.
About 2,000 displaced persons were evacuated to various temporary shelters. The magnitude 6.2 earthquake at the beginning of Friday was 36 kilometers (22 miles) south of the Mamuju District in West Sulawesi province, at a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles), according to the US Geological Survey .
At least 62 homes, a public health center and a military office were damaged in Mamuju and landslides occurred in three locations blocking a main road connecting Mamuju to the Majene district, said Raditya Jati, the disaster agency spokesman. He said the agency is still collecting data from areas hit by the earthquake.
On Thursday, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck under the sea in the same region, damaging several homes but causing no apparent casualties.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 260 million people, is regularly hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.