PADANG, Indonesia - Two strong earthquakes hit Indonesia's Sumatra island on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people, flattening buildings and sending emergency operations into full swing to deal with the injured and displaced.

The tremors were felt as far away as Malaysia and Singapore, where several buildings were evacuated.

Scores of people were believed trapped under rubble on Sumatra, prompting the government to send in the military to assist with rescue efforts.

"Seventy people have been killed. The president has contacted the (West Sumatra) governor directly and right now evacuation process by the military and police is underway," Sudi Silalahi told reporters in Jakarta.

Hospitals in some areas were overwhelmed with dozens of injured and fears of aftershocks pushed authorities in Padang to set up emergency tents in a soccer field.

Government officials began to rush aid to affected people, but a key road connecting Batu Sangkar and Padang was badly damaged hampering aid distribution.

"Our priority is to handle the injured ones, including their families. We have set up six tents at a soccer field as emergency posts," Syamsu Rahim, the mayor of Solok town, told Reuters
"The evacuation process is going on ... I cannot predict how many people are still trapped because the process is still on. However, there are many houses collapsed, and I believe that the inhabitants are in them."

The first quake of magnitude 6.3 was felt in the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang at around 11 a.m., sparking panic among seaside residents who feared it might trigger a tsunami.

A second 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck the same area two hours later, causing more panic. However, there was no immediate tsunami warning after the quakes, which were on land.

The United States Geological Survey said the first quake's epicentre was around 420 km (260 miles) from Singapore. The Indonesian national quake centre measured the quake at 5.8.

Some buildings collapsed and several homes and other buildings were badly damaged by the tremors that sent several people scrambling for safety, including 200-300 patients who ran out of a hospital in Padang, a Reuters witness said.

"Many have calmed down and are returning home, but we can still see some traffic jams around the city," the mayor of Padang, Fauzi Bahar, told Reuters.

Padang is one of the few Indonesian cities where a tsunami warning system is in place. A quake in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra island in December 2004 and the tsunami it caused left about 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's northern Aceh province.

Reuters

Unfortunately Indonesia has been having a lot of bad luck over the last few years and has been getting a lot of earthquakes. Apparently it's one of the most active seismic areas in the world

Quake strikes off Indonesia's Sumatra

- A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra on Wednesday but there was no risk of a tsunami, seismologists said.

"There is no potential for a tsunami," a staff member at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, who did not identify himself, told AFP from Indonesia's capital Jakarta.

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit under ground on Sumatra on Tuesday, killing at least 52 people and injuring many others.

The new tremor was felt on Sumatra, the Jakarta-based seismologist said.

"It was felt quite strong, people ran out of their houses, but we have earthquakes quite often, so people went back to their houses after it stopped," Siregar, a resident on nearby Nias island, told Elshinta radio.

The quake occurred at 5:53 pm (1053 GMT) and was centred underwater some 105 kilometres (65 miles) west-northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, the US Geological Survey said. It struck at a depth of around 30 kilometres.

Indonesia, an archipelago of some 17,000 islands, sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet -- and where earthquakes are a regular and often deadly occurrence.

The devastating Asian tsunami in 2004 was set off by a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, killing some 168,000 people in Aceh province on its northern tip. A total of 220,000 people died across the Indian Ocean region.

Agence France Presse

I didn`t realize how frequently that area is hit by earthquakes until I saw it on the News yesterday. Those people must live in fear of their lives for most of the time. So Sad!

Quote:it's one of the most active seismic areas in the world