Indonesian quake injures scores, shakes popular tourist spot

A powerful earthquake in remote eastern Indonesia on Friday injured more than 60 people, left hundreds of houses damaged and rattled an idyllic island chain popular with foreign tourists and divers.

People were woken up and ran screaming out of their homes when the 6.6-magnitude undersea quake struck in the Papua region at about 1:00 am local, not far from the coastal city of Sorong.

Seventeen people were so far known to have sustained serious injuries and 45 to have suffered minor <g data-gr-id="22">injuries,</g> while 200 houses were damaged, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

No deaths have so far been reported. The quake also caused blackouts in Sorong and patients were evacuated from a hospital.

“We are still collecting data, and we expect the number of victims and damage to increase,” Nugroho said in a statement.

The quake was also felt strongly in Raja Ampat, northwest of the epicentre, an archipelago popular with tourists and divers due to its palm-fringed islands that are surrounded by an underwater kaleidoscope of coral and fish.

Yona Niki, a receptionist at Waisai Beach Hotel on Waigeo island, said staff and four guests staying at the hotel ran outside when the quake hit and waited until the intense shaking had stopped.

The manager of another hotel said the quake left cracks in the walls.