Earthquake shakes eastern Indonesia, kills 20

A strong earthquake Thursday killed at least 20 people and damaged a bridge, a hospital and other buildings on one of Indonesia’s less populated islands.

Parts of a building at an Islamic university collapsed in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province. Local disaster official Albert Simaela said a teacher was killed there when parts of the building fell on her.

Simaela said a main hospital in Ambon was damaged and patients were evacuated to tents in the hospital’s yard.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said at least 19 others were killed and more than 2,000 people took refuge in various shelters.

The magnitude 6.5 quake was centered 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) northeast of Ambon at a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Rahmat Triyono, head of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami center, said the inland earthquake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami, but witnesses told television stations that people along coastal areas ran to higher ground in fear one might occur.

Agencies

Dhaka/Nasim