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Slew of quakes hit archipelago, cause minor panic in capital
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6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Lampung province in Sumatra, Banten and Jakarta in Java at around 4:45 p.m. Friday, causing panic in Bandarlampung and some concern in the capital.
Office worker Anita Hanny, 24, said she felt her building, Plaza Abda on Jl. Sudirman, sway but did not panic as she did during the 7.0-magnitude West Java quake on Sept. 2.
Office workers evacuated the building in South Jakarta, but most of the people in her office on the 23rd floor did not rush to the emergency stairway, she said.
Meanwhile, in Bandarlampung, people evacuated multistory shopping centers on Jl. Kartini and Jl. Radin Intan as shouts of “Earthquake!” and “Tsunami!” were heard.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the epicenter of the quake was in the Sunda Strait, 42 kilometers northwest of Ujung Kulon in Banten province, around 185 kilometers southwest of Jakarta, at a depth of 55 kilometers beneath the ocean floor.
The quake was also felt in Tanjung Karang in Lampung, and in Bandung, West Java. No immediate tsunami warnings were issued. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said there were no reports of casualties.
The earthquake was the third to hit the country on Friday. The BMKG reported a magnitude 5.8 quake had struck 88 kilometers southwest of Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, at 1:33 p.m., while a magnitude 5.2 quake struck 209 kilometers northwest of Saumlaki, Maluku, at 4:07 p.m.
Farida, 37, who was shopping on the second floor of Plaza Tanjungkarang in Bandarlampung, said the repeated calls of a tsunami had frightened her.
“I just grabbed my child and ran to save ourselves,” she said.
“Outside the supermarket, a lot of people were also screaming.”
Farida said the quake lasted at least a minute. She said that beneath the shopping center was a terminal for public buses.
“When a bus goes by, the second floor usually shakes a little,” she said.
“But during the earthquake, the tremors were much harder; I was afraid the building would collapse.”
Anita said that when she left for home, there were still many office workers standing outside buildings.
“It was maybe half as many people as after the [Sept. 2] earthquake,” she said.
She said that after last month’s quake, workers had been briefed on what to do in case of a quake.
“The email said it was best to hide under the desk and wait until the tremors stop, rather than run to the stairway right away, because the stairs damage more easily,” she said.
Shoppers and office workers at Plaza Semanggi, also on Jl. Sudirman, evacuated the mall.
Over at the House of Representatives, tempers flared after staff encountered a locked emergency exit.
People banged on the door and shouted, Tempointeraktif.com reported, while one person came close to hitting a security guard. Security eventually unlocked the exit.
