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BREAKING: Earthquake hits Indonesia, killing four as floating restaurant collapses into sea
- A 5.4 magnitude earthquake killed four people and injured others today in Indonesia
- It comes days after earthquakes rocked Turkey and Syria, killing thousands
- LAST MINUTE: More to follow
At least four people died when a floating restaurant collapsed into the sea during an earthquake in Indonesia today.
The Cirita Cafe in Jayapura, Papua, collapsed when the 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck the eastern province on the afternoon of Thursday, February 9.
Four women were unable to escape the collapsed building in time and were buried under the rubble.
Rescuers found them lifeless in Jayapura Bay.
‘A cafe collapsed and four people died there. It fell into the sea,” Asep Khalid, director of the Jayapura disaster mitigation agency, said in a press release.
Putri Kurita, 30, ran to the exit of another restaurant, fearing it would collapse.
“I was having lunch when things suddenly changed, the shaking got much stronger,” he told AFP.
People stand on the roof of collapsed shops at the port after an earthquake struck Jayapura, Papua province, eastern Indonesia, on February 9, 2023.
A woman uses her phone next to a collapsed wall after the earthquake toppled the coast
People in Indonesia trapped on a collapsing roof after the 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck today
People seen aboard a boat after a floating restaurant collapsed into the sea, killing four
Other infrastructure, including the Jayapura shopping mall, was reportedly damaged. Several neighbors were also injured.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the quake struck at 1:28 p.m. local time, about 1 km southwest of Jayapura, at a depth of 10 km.
The country straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where most of Earth’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
It comes just days after an earthquake in Turkey killed at least 15,000 people across the country and in neighboring Syria.
Patients are evacuated outside a hospital after the earthquake hit Papua today.
Bystanders film people with and without life jackets trying to escape the collapsing roof
More people watch as people stand on the broken roofs after today’s earthquake.
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake also struck the Banda Sea near Indonesia on Tuesday and was felt in Darwin, Australia.
It damaged a handful of local buildings and injured one in Indonesia.
Indonesia was also hit by a magnitude 6.2 underwater earthquake on January 16.
The archipelago lies on the ‘Ring of Fire’ arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin, and is prone to earthquakes.