4 seriously injured after strong quake in Indonesia

JAKARTA - Four people were seriously wounded and a number of houses were damaged in Sigi and Parigi Mountong districts after a 6.2-magnitude shallow quake jolted Central Sulawesi of Indonesia on Saturday, local official said.

The victims of the quake were hit by the debris of building in Sigi district and now they were on the way to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, Holi Setiawan, head of the Emergency Unit of Disaster of the Management and Mitigation Agency in Central Sulawesi said.

"The four people suffer from very serious wounds after they were hit by the debris," he told Xinhua over phone from Central Sulawesi.

"The reports I have got says that many houses in Sigi district and Parigi Mountong district have been damaged, but we still do not know the exact figure yet," Setiawan said.

Identification of the impact of the quake was under way, he said.

The quake struck at 16:41 Jakarta time (0941 GMT) with epicenter at 27 km southwest Parigi Mountong of Central Sulawesi and with the depth at 10 km under land, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Xinhua by phone.

The intensity of the quake was felt at 3 to 4 MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) in Palu town of central Sulawesi, the official said. The USGS said the quake was 6.3-magnitude. Indonesia is vulnerable of earthquake as it sits on quake-hit zone, the so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire".