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South of Java Quake and Tsunami leave more than 300 people dead


Tuesday July 18, 2006

Just when most people thought that life was finally back to normal after the devastating quake that hit Yogyakarta on 27 May, - another tectonic quake of 6.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale shook the southern coast of West and Central Java, at 15.24 hrs. yesterday, Monday, 17 July. This time, the quake was followed by a 5 meter tsunami wave, destroying homes along large swaths of coastline, west of Yogya. Today, 18 July, rescue teams found 287 dead, and 342 reported missing, with hundreds of fishing boats, homes, small hotels and restaurants completely flattened, and thousands of evacuees had fled to higher ground. Two inmates of the Nusa Kambangan prison have also been swept by the giant wave. (By Tuesday night the number of dead had risen to 377 persons)  

 

 

Four foreigners are feared dead, one Swedish national, one Dutch and two Pakistani. 

 

 

Hardest hit was the beach resort of Pangandaran, located south of Bandung, but tsunami waves traveled further east, slamming the town of Cilacap, then the maximum security prison island of Nusa Kambangan, - where Bali bombers Amrozi and friends are awaiting execution, -  and further east the Central Java district of Kebumen.

 

Altogether, Monday’s tsunami swept across a 400 km. stretch along the south Java coastline, flooding inland to a distance of one kilometer in places.

 

Geologists said that the tectonic quake was generated in the Indian Ocean, some 150 miles south of Java, causing high-rise buildings even in far away Jakarta to sway and office workers scurrying out of buildings. Others on lower floors, however, as elsewhere in the capital or even in the nearer located city of Bandung , were completely unaware of any tremors. The first quake was followed by a number of strong after shocks some two hours later.

 

The earthquake triggered a tsunami warning on 's Java and Sumatra islands and 's Christmas and Cocos islands .

 

's Meteorological Agency said in a statement that :“There is a possibility of a destructive tsunami in the Indian Ocean ”. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a similar bulletin, reports AP.

 

is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin .