Two?toddlers were killed,?26 others were wounded and
buildings collapsed in Bima regency of the West Nusa Tenggara
province after a strong quake with magnitude of 6.7 rocked the
province on Sunday night, local television reported early
Monday.
Metro TV said that all the victims were in Bima regency of the
province. One school building in Dompu district and a number of
houses collapsed.
"We could not confirm the report from the Metro TV yet," an
official of the Disaster Management Agency (BAKORNAS) Setyo Sutarmi
told Xinhua.
"But, our people at the fields were still collecting more
information," he said.
The main shock struck at 23:02 Jakarta time (1602 GMT) with
epicenter at 50 kilometers southwest of Raba town of the province
and at 50 kilometers in depth, said Ali Imron, an official of the
Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
Twenty-three people were killed and thousands of buildings were
destroyed in September after a 7.9 on Richter scale quake hit
Bengkulu province in Sumatra Island of Indonesia.
In December 2004, over 170,000 people were killed in Aceh
province after a tsunami triggered by a strong quake devastated
coastal areas of the province and other countries in Southeast
Asia..
Indonesia lies in a vulnerable zone so-called "the Pacific Ring
of Fire" where two continental plates, stretching from the Western
Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, meet and cause
frequent volcanic movements.
(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2007)
