Office and hotel workers gather outside after a preliminary magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook Jakarta on Friday. (Photo: Achmad Ibrahim, AP)

6.4 Magnitude Quake Rocks Banten and Jakarta

Dozens of homes in Pandeglang district, Banten, were damaged after a 6.4 magnitude quake struck the Sunda Strait on Friday afternoon, local police said.

The temblor caused buildings to shake some 187 kilometers away in Jakarta.

The quake struck 185 kilometers from Sukabumi, at a depth of 53.7 kilometers, according to the US Geological Survey. The USGS initially assigned it a magnitude of 6.5 but later downgraded it to 6.1. No tsunami warning was issued.

“We have lightly damaged homes,” said Banten Police Chief Pandeglang AKBP Aminudin.

He said there were reports of damage in a market and a primary school building. In one home, a kitchen wall reportedly collapsed, as well as a roof.

“We are still waiting for more data from officers in the field,” he said, adding that so far, they had not received casualty reports.

In Cilegon, on the West Java coast, residents said that there were powerful tremors, but there was no evidence of damage.

Officials at Ujung Kulon National Park said there did not appear to be any damage to the 1,200-square-kilometer reserve. PT Krakatau Steel’s plant in Banten province was reportedly unaffected.

The tremor was felt at between II and IV MMI in Jakarta. This level is considered to pose a relatively low threat to buildings and other structures, said Suharjono, head of the seismology center at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

People fled high-rise buildings in Jakarta during the quake.

Robert Simanungkalit and his girlfriend were on the 10th floor of Plaza Semanggi when the quake hit. “We ran down the emergency stairs,” he said.

Suharjono said it was impossible to know whether this was related to the one that struck West Sumatra earlier this month.

JG, Bloomberg, Antara

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