ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday offered Indonesia “all possible assistance” following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that killed at least 38 people, expressing condolences to the families of the victims, his office said.
The earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Flores Island in the east earlier in the day, collapsing buildings and causing panic in a region frequently affected by deadly seismic activity. Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground before later lifting the alert.
Zardari expressed deep sorrow over the loss of life and reaffirmed Pakistan’s solidarity with the Indonesian government and people, according to the President’s Secretariat.
“On behalf of the people of Pakistan, the President extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and expressed solidarity with the Government and people of Indonesia in this difficult hour,” Zardari’s office said in a post on X. “Pakistan stands ready to extend all possible assistance.”
The President also prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured, the statement said.
Indonesia lies along several major seismic faults and is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a roughly 40,000-km belt of intense seismic and volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean, making earthquakes and volcanic eruptions a frequent occurrence.
In June, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck central Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, causing scattered damage and rattling residents of a city that was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami eight years earlier.
