A magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, early Friday morning, damaging over 100 homes but causing no reported injuries, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The quake occurred at 2:52 a.m. local time (1952 GMT on Thursday), with its epicentre located offshore near Bengkulu province and a depth of 68 kilometres (42.2 miles), the USGS reported. Indonesia’s meteorological agency, however, recorded the quake at a magnitude of 6.0 and a depth of 84 kilometres, adding that it posed no tsunami risk.
According to Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the earthquake damaged more than 100 homes and at least six public buildings in the city of Bengkulu. "In Bengkulu city, 140 houses were affected, eight of which collapsed beyond repair," he said during a Friday press briefing. In the Central Bengkulu district, two homes sustained minor damage, he added. No casualties had been reported as of Friday morning.
Local residents described being jolted awake by the tremor. “The windows were shaking strongly, and that woke us up,” said 36-year-old Erick Catur Nugroho. “We immediately took the children outside, and most of our neighbours were already outside their homes too.”
Indonesia, situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire—a zone of frequent seismic activity due to colliding tectonic plates—regularly experiences earthquakes.
In recent years, the country has seen several devastating quakes, including a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Sulawesi in January 2021 that killed more than 100 people and a magnitude-7.5 quake followed by a tsunami in Palu in 2018 that claimed over 2,200 lives.
The 2004 magnitude-9.1 earthquake in Aceh province remains the deadliest, triggering a massive tsunami that killed more than 170,000 Indonesians.
