Indonesia quake toll put at 23
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- An earthquake Friday in Indonesia's eastern province of Papua has claimed 23 lives and the death toll will rise, officials say.
More than 100 people have been injured in the quake, which measured 6.9 on the Richter scale.
CNN understands that the official death toll stands at eight, but is expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center Web site said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, and struck at 4:05 a.m. Jakarta time Friday.
District police chief Muhamad Son Ani said 23 had died in the coastal town of Nabire. He said the toll could rise when reports from rural areas were received. "Communication lines are dead," he said.
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Son Ani said 62 injured people had been treated and sent home, 30 were in a military hospital and about 60 were in a local hospital, which has been badly damaged.
Nabire, with a population of 26,000, is about 7 kilometers from where Indonesian earthquake center officials placed the quake's epicenter.
B. Rumbiak, Nabire meteorology station chief, said there have been 11 aftershocks.
"The victims died because of fallen houses and buildings which could not endure earthquakes. And it was quite a heavy quake," said Fauzi, coordinator of the national earthquake center.
Police chief Son Ani said: "Residents are still afraid there will be other aftershocks because until now we can still feel the shaking. People are setting up tents outside their houses."
He said the dead included at least four children ranging in age from one month to three years.
The quake had also damaged some roads in Indonesia's eastern-most province, and Nabire airport had been closed due to a crack in the landing strip.
Rugged but resource-rich Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, is 3,000 km (1,900 miles) east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
The vast archipelago that makes up Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, stretches along a geologically active area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Operations of the giant Grasberg copper and gold mine, jointly owned by Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoRan Inc, were unaffected by the quake, although it was felt at the site, a spokesman in Jakarta said.
The mining operation is 110 miles from the earthquake epicenter.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
