5.8 magnitude quake rocks Indonesia’s Sulawesi island

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — A magnitude 5.8 undersea earthquake shook the eastern side of Indonesia on Sunday morning, injuring 29 people, including two in critical condition.

The quake struck 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) north of Poso district in Central Sulawesi province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was followed by at least 15 aftershocks.

No tsunami warning was issued by Indonesian authorities.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said most of the injured had been taken to the regional government hospital. Most of them were the congregation attending Sunday morning service at a church, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari on Sunday.

“Amateur videos showing structural damage to the church have been circulating. Poso Disaster Mitigation Agency continues to conduct rapid assessments in the field to determine the initial impact of the earthquake,” Muhari said.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 270 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In 2022, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake at least 602 people in West Java’s Cianjur city, the deadliest one in Indonesia since a 2018 quake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed more than 4,300 people.

In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

___

Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.