JAKARTA: A powerful earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island early on Monday and was felt strongly in some areas, including the city of Padang, though there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.
The magnitude 6.7 quake, which struck at 04:09 local time (21:09 GMT on Sunday), did not have the potential to cause a tsunami, the head of Indonesia’s geophysics agency (BMKG) Dwikorita Karnawati said.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) had put the strength of the earthquake near Kepulauan Batu at 6.8 magnitude, at a depth of 40 km (24.85 miles).
The Indonesian BMKG agency described the quake as feeling like a “truck passing through” in some areas, and said there had been four aftershocks with the biggest of magnitude 6. Padang is about 1,000 kilometers north west of capital Jakarta.
So far officials had not received any information on damage, but were still assessing the impact in some remote areas including north Sumatra’s Nias Selatan, where communications were difficult, an official said.
Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes, straddling the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a seismically active zone where different plates of the earth’s crust meet.
The fault along Sumatra island can be particularly active and dangerous. In 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude quake and a tsunami off the northern tip of Sumatra killed 226,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.
Last month, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in the area killed at least 10 people, the local disaster mitigation agency in West Sumatra said.
Strong quake strikes off Indonesia, no tsunami potential seen
https://arab.news/wsp5p
Strong quake strikes off Indonesia, no tsunami potential seen
- The Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake was felt in many parts of the province but there was no danger of a tsunami
Kyiv ready for talks ‘next week’ with US over Russia proposals: Zelensky
- “Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” said Zelensky.
- “It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place“
KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his negotiators were waiting to hear from the United States on further meetings about ending the war with Russia.
Zelensky’s remarks in his evening address appeared to suggest that a second round of talks scheduled to start in Abu Dhabi on Sunday between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the fighting had been postponed.
“Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” said Zelensky.
“It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place. We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them.”
Zelensky was speaking as US envoy Steve Witkoff said he had had “productive and constructive” talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida on Saturday.
Teams from Ukraine and Russia met Friday and Saturday last week in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by President Donald Trump to end the war.
They had agreed to resume talks there on Sunday.
On Thursday however, Zelensky suggested that the date and venue could change given the current tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The US says both sides are close to a deal, but they have so far been unable to find a compromise on the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement, according to Kyiv.
