Strong 6.5 magnitude quake strikes eastern #Indonesia

AMBON CITY, Indonesia: A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the remote Maluku islands in eastern Indonesia Thursday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck about 37 kilometres northeast of Ambon in Maluku province at 8:46 am local time, at a depth of 29 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage in the area, which has been rocked by strong quakes in the past.

"I was asleep with my family when suddenly the house started to shake," said an AFP reporter in Ambon.

"The quake was really strong. We ran from our house and saw the neighbours fleeing too. Everybody was panicking."

Multiple aftershocks have rippled across the area, he added.

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Initial reports said the quake struck offshore, but later analysis found it hit onshore, raising the potential for damage, according to Indonesia's national disaster mitigation agency.

Local disaster agency head Oral Sem Wilar called for calm.

"People were panicking and started to evacuate in some places, but we are trying to tell them there's no need to panic because there's no tsunami threat," he told AFP.

"We are still checking on damage and any casualties."

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide.

In August, five people died and several were injured after a powerful undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's heavily populated Java island.

Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

The force of the impact saw entire neighbourhoods levelled by liquefaction -- a process where the ground starts behaving like a liquid and swallows up the earth like quicksand.

Nearly 60,000 people are still living in makeshift accommodation nearly a year after the double disaster, the Red Cross said this week.

On Boxing Day 2004, a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.

Source - Bangkok Post

Death toll in #Indonesia quake rises to 164

The death toll from a devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has risen above 160, an official said Thursday, as authorities urgently appealed for medicine, food and clean water for some 156,000 people displaced by the disaster.

Many frightened villagers are staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.

Evacuees in some encampments say they are running out of food, while others are suffering psychological trauma after the powerful quake, which struck just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

"The death toll rose to 164 people with at least 1,400 people seriously injured and 156,000 displaced," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP.

Tens of thousands of homes, businesses and mosques were levelled by the quake, which struck on Sunday as evening prayers were being said across the Muslim-majority island.

Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organising aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake.

"We are still waiting for assessments from some of the more remote areas in the north of the island, but it is already clear that Sunday's earthquake was exceptionally destructive," 

Christopher Rassi, the head of a Red Cross assessment team on Lombok, said in a statement.

He estimated 75 percent of houses are damaged in some villages in east and north Lombok.

"There are still some evacuees that have not yet been touched by aid, especially in North Lombok and West Lombok," Nugroho tweeted Thursday.

Source - TheNation 

Baby saved from #Laos dam disaster by Thai cave rescue volunteers

The rescue of a baby boy, terrified and hungry after days without food, has been captured in a viral video showing the infant survivor of a dam collapse in southern Laos being carefully carried through swirling flood waters and waist-high mud.

Footage of volunteers from Thailand rescuing 14 people, including the baby, went viral when it was released on Friday as an increasingly international relief mission scrambles to save lives in a disaster that has left scores dead and missing.

 The survivors were stranded by flood waters after they fled up a hill on Monday as the Xe-Namnoy dam broke under heavy rain, leaving several villages devastated by flash floods.

    The Thai team, who waded several kilometres through rushing water carrying uprooted trees and debris to rescue the group, are fresh from efforts to help free a youth football team trapped in a cave in the north of their country.

 A member of the Thai Rescue Team volunteer group helping a young flood survivor to keep warm close to the swollen river in Attapeu province.

 They have now come to help out in neighbouring Laos, which is poorly equipped to deal with natural disasters of this scale.

    "The boy is four months old. He didn't have fever but he was crying, maybe because of the cold weather," Kengkard Bongkawong, one of the rescuers, who is from Thailand's northeast, told AFP.

  "The baby was crying and looks terrified. Actually they were (all) still terrified of the rushing water."

    The video had been watched nearly half a million times hours after it was posted online on Friday.

    Earlier this week officials said 27 bodies had been retrieved so far, with the country's prime minister reporting 131 missing.

    But on Friday the governor of Attapeu province Leth Xiayaphone revised down the toll to five, saying the larger number previously given was "unconfirmed information".

 A Thai Rescue Team volunteer group rescuing flood survivors, including a baby trapped in a remote village, close to the swollen river in Attapeu province. 

Secretive Communist authorities in Laos are not used to international scrutiny and have blocked access to foreign media, complicating efforts to establish the exact death toll.

    The dam disaster has also raised serious questions over Laos' big bet on hydropower to propel it out of poverty.

Source - TheNation

 

Thai official: 5 reported missing from sunken boat are alive

PHUKET, Thailand — Five people reported to have been missing from a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket are alive, Thai authorities said Monday, though it's unclear if the five survived the sinking or never got on the boat.

Phuket Gov. Norrapat Plodthong said authorities are trying to verify their details and some of them may have left Thailand.

Norrapat said the development came after new information emerged from Thai immigration and the Chinese Embassy.

The new information also showed there were 89 tourists, 87 of them Chinese, on the boat, instead of the previous figure of 93, he said.

The number of people who are missing has been lowered from 14 to 10, including the five who are alive but whose whereabouts are unclear, he said. The death toll remains at 42, including a body still trapped under the wreckage.

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The double-decker Phoenix capsized and sank late Thursday afternoon after it was hit by 5-meter (16-foot) waves in one of Thailand's worse tourism-related disasters since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed thousands.

Officials said all of the dead were Chinese comprising 13 children, 18 women and 10 men. The age and sex of the body still under the wreckage wasn't known.

Navy officials on Monday were attempting to flip the boat to retrieve the body and check for other possible victims. Special equipment has been brought in to lift up the boat, which is sitting some 45 meters (148 feet) beneath the surface, officials said.

Tourism is a vital part of the Thai economy, with the World Bank estimating the Southeast Asian nation generates about 12 percent of its gross domestic product from tourism receipts. Chinese tourists are a key driver of the industry, accounting for 9.8 million of the record 35.38 million tourists to visit the country last year.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the country's military ruler, expressed his "profound sadness" in a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the letter released by the foreign ministry Monday, Prayuth said a full investigation is underway to find the cause of the tragedy and assured Xi his government is determined to ensure such incidents would not recur.

Prayuth arrived in Phuket on Monday to observe the operations and will visit Chinese relatives and survivors at a hospital.

Police said the captain of the Phoenix has been charged with "careless conduct leading to death" and could face more than three years in jail.

The captain of another boat that capsized on the same day and the manager of a travel agency that chartered the boat have also been charged for being careless leading to injuries. All the passengers from the second ship were rescued.

Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat, who is in Phuket, has said the government will "spare no one" and will bring all those responsible to justice. Families of each victim could receive up to 1.4 million Thai baht ($42,000) in compensation, officials said.

Source - ChinaDaily