296 reported dead in 8.7 quake near Indonesia
Hundreds feared trapped in downed buildings; tsunami fears ebb

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:23 p.m. ET March 28, 2005

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A major earthquake struck late Monday off the west coast of Indonesia, and a local government official said 296 people were killed in collapsed buildings. Thousands panicked in countries across the Indian Ocean as tsunami warnings were posted.

Fears of another catastrophe similar to December’s devastating tsunami eased within hours, as officials in countries closest to the quake’s epicenter said there were no reports of big waves striking their coasts after the temblor was reported.

Early reports of damage and casualties were confined to the island of Nias, off the Sumatran coast, close to the epicenter.

The quake collapsed about 70 percent of houses and buildings in the town of Gunungsitoli, said police Sgt. Zulkifli Sirait.

‘Extreme panic’
Agus Mendrofa, deputy district head on Nias island, told el-Shinta radio station that 296 people were killed. He said this figure was based on reports from humanitarian workers on the island.

“We still cannot count the number of casualties or the number of collapsed building because it is dark here,” Sirait said in a telephone interview. “It is possible that hundreds of people trapped in the collapsed buildings died.”

Nias, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Dec. 26 that killed at least 175,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations and left another 106,000 missing. At least 340 residents of Nias perished and 10,000 were left homeless.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday’s quake, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. A later reading put the magnitude at 8.7, said Paul Earle, a USGS geophysicist.

“I can guarantee that dozens have died,” said Mendrofa in a telephone interview from Gunungsitoli, the island's main town. “Gunungsitoli is now like a dead town. The situation here is in extreme panic.”

A senior police officer told Reuters he had seen three dead bodies and that many others were trapped in damaged buildings.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. disaster relief coordinator, said the U.N. had "unconfirmed reports" of fatalities in Nias, and said there were thousands of relief officials in the region who were ready to respond if needed.

Shocks and aftershocks
Indonesian officials said the quake’s epicenter was 56 miles south of the island of Simeulu, off of Sumatra’s western coast, and just north of Nias. It was described by one of the agency’s geologists as an aftershock of the Dec. 26 quake.

An aftershock measuring 6.0 was reported in the same region nearly 30 minutes later, the USGS said.

Preliminary indications are that energy from the quake might be directed toward the southwest, said Frank Gonzalez, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. He stressed that it was based on “very scanty information” about the epicenter and magnitude.

In Banda Aceh, the Sumatran region hit hardest in December, the quake briefly cut electricity. Thousands poured into the streets to flee low-lying areas.

The only tsunami reported within four hours was a tiny one — less than 4 inches — at the Cocos Islands, 1,400 miles west of Australia, meteorologists in Sydney said.

Tsunami warnings called off
Tsunami warnings were issued in Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka, although officials in Thailand later called it off for that country.

“The situation has returned to normal," the Thailand’s Meteorological Department said in a statement some five hours after the quake. "It is safe now and the Meteorological Department has cancelled the evacuation order. People can return home.”

The West Coast-Alaska tsunami warning center said that if no tsunami waves were observed in the region near the epicenter within three hours, then it is likely that the danger would have passed.

“It seems this earthquake did not trigger a tsunami. If it had, the tsunami would have hit the coastline of Sumatra by now,” said Prihar Yadi, a scientist with the Indonesia Geophysics Agency. ^“And if there’s no tsunami on the coastline near the epicenter of the quake, there will not be one heading in the other direction.”

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