PASAMAN, Indonesia: A strong and shallow earthquake shook Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Friday, killing seven people and injuring 85, while causing panic on the island and in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck about 66 kilometers (41 miles) north-northwest of Bukittinggi, a hilly town in West Sumatra province, according to the US Geological Survey. It was centered about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) below the Earth’s surface.
At least four people, including two children, were killed in Pasaman district and three people died in the neighboring district of West Pasaman. At least 410 houses and buildings were damaged, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
More than 5,000 people fled their homes to temporary shelters, mostly in devastated areas of Pasaman and West Pasaman districts, agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said in a statement.
“We are still focusing on search and rescue efforts for the victims,” Muhari said.
Authorities were still investigating the full extent of the damage.
People ran out of their houses looking for safer places when the earthquake struck, said Ahmad Nur, a resident of Talamau village in West Pasaman district. He said he was preparing to open his shop in a nearby market and returned home to check on his family. His house was damaged and his wife was in pain because her leg had been hit by debris, he said.
“Thank God ... my wife and our two kids managed to escape when the walls started to tumble,” Nur said. “The quake destroyed everything in my house, but I’m grateful that my wife and children are safe ... with only minor injuries.”
He said he and other survivors set up makeshift tents near the government office and were awaiting relief from the government or volunteers.
Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency, said there was no danger of a tsunami but warned of possible aftershocks.
Television reports showed panicked people rushing into the streets in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, and patients in a hospital in West Pasaman being evacuated from the building. The reports also showed streams filled with mud from landslides triggered by the earthquake, and a mosque, a school and several houses that were flattened.
People in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore also felt the tremors. A video on social media showed residents gathering in the streets after high-rise buildings in Kuala Lumpur swayed for a few seconds. Witnesses said their doors and chairs shook and photos and paintings swayed on the walls.
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 January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.
Magnitude 6.2 earthquake kills 7 on Indonesia’s Sumatra
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Magnitude 6.2 earthquake kills 7 on Indonesia’s Sumatra
Kremlin welcomes US sanctions waiver, says US and Russia share interest in stable energy markets
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday a temporary authorization allowing countries around the world to purchase Russian oil
DUBAI: Russia sees a US sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilize global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
“We see actions by the United States aimed at trying to stabilize energy markets. In this respect, our interests coincide,” Peskov said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday a temporary authorization which allows countries around the world to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea, extending a measure that had previously been granted only to Indian refiners.
Bessent stressed in a post on X that the authorization would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.
He said: “This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.”
However, the move has met with a mixed reaction in European capitals, with many fearing it could aid Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
“I am concerned that we are further filling Putin’s war chest,” German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in Berlin on Friday.
Reiche added that she saw both sides to the US’ decision to issue a 30-day waiver for the purchase of Russian oil products, and understood the increasing economic and political strife caused by the oil crisis.
“It seems to me that domestic political pressure in the United States is very, very high,” Reiche said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was more direct, saying on Friday that it was wrong to ease sanctions on Russia for any reason. The sentiment was echoed by Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who said sanctions should not be eased.
Oil prices held gains above $100 on Friday and most equity markets dropped after Iran’s leader called for the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the US and Israel.
With the conflict heading toward its third week and showing no sign of ending, investors are growing increasingly worried about an extended crisis that could fan inflation and hammer the global economy.
