Magnitude 7.4 quake strikes Indonesia, kills one, triggers tsunami

Indonesia – (Web Desk) – A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook the eastern coast of Indonesia early Thursday, leaving one person dead, damaging buildings, and sending thousands of frightened residents rushing into the streets.

The quake struck in the Molucca Sea, nestled between the Sulawesi and Maluku island groups, during the busy morning hours. It sent waves as high as 75 centimetres crashing ashore in some areas and triggered a tsunami warning — though authorities were able to lift it a little over two hours later.

For many people, the moment was pure chaos and fear.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was just trying to save my family,” said Siti Rohayati, a 58-year-old street food vendor who was in the middle of the breakfast rush in Manado, North Sulawesi. “All that mattered was getting my children away safely. I pushed all three of them and told them: Run!”

Tragically, one person lost their life when a building collapsed in Manado, and at least one other person was hurt. Search and rescue official George Leo Mercy Randang confirmed the victim was found buried beneath the rubble, and teams were actively following up on reports of additional injuries.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 35 kilometres — which often makes tremors feel far more intense at the surface.

Initially, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii raised the alarm, warning that dangerous waves could affect coastlines within 1,000 kilometres of the epicentre, including parts of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Elevated waves were eventually recorded across nine locations in North Maluku, North Sulawesi, and Gorontalo provinces, with the highest — 75 centimetres — hitting North Minahasa.

Budi Nurgianto, a 42-year-old from Ternate in North Maluku, described a deeply unsettling experience.

“The quake was felt strongly. I heard it first from the walls of the house shaking,” he recalled. “When I went outside, there were many people already there — all of them panicked. The shaking went on for quite a long time, more than a minute. I even saw some people running out without finishing their shower.”

Dozens of aftershocks continued to ripple through the region following the main quake, keeping nerves on edge. The head of Indonesia’s geological agency, Teuku Faisal Fathani, addressed journalists in Jakarta, urging calm while authorities worked to fully assess the damage.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire — one of the most seismically active regions on Earth — making earthquakes a familiar but never less frightening part of life for its people.

One of them had a magnitude of 5.9, USGS data showed.

An AFP journalist in Manado, about 300 kilometres west of Ternate by sea, said the shaking woke him and others in the city of some 450,000 people.

“I immediately woke up and left my house. People (were) immediately scrambling outside. There is a school and the pupils rushed outside,” he said.

The shaking persisted for “quite long” but he did not witness “significant damage”, he added.

The PTWC had initially warned that tsunami waves of up to one metre were possible for parts of Indonesia, and smaller ones were possible for the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Guam and Palau.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said it expected “slight changes” in the sea level along the Pacific coast from northern Hokkaido to southern Okinawa, but has not issued any warnings.

The earthquake centres of the Philippines and Malaysia have also not issued tsunami alerts.

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Indonesia and neighbouring countries experience frequent earthquakes due to their location in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck the westernmost Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.