SUMATRA QUAKE DRIVES PEOPLE OUT OF BUILDINGS

Medan, N Sumatra, Sept 30 (ANTARA) - Thousands of people in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, fled their buildings for safety when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Sumatra on Wednesday afternoon.

People panicked and were seen gathering along the roads outside storeyed buildings such as on Jalan Diponegoro, KH Zainul Arifin, Gatot Subroto, Ahmad Yani and MT Haryono.

Ismet (35) , an employee of a bank on Jalan Diponegoro, said the temblor was felt very strongly in the 10-storey building of his office.

"The quake was strongly felt and employees panicked while running down the stairs of the building," he said.

Adi (40), an employee of a private company on Jalan Ahmad Yani, said "I felt dizzy while running down the stairs and everybody panicked with some shouting 'earthquake'."
A quake analyst of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency in Medan, Buha Simanjuntak, said the quake that happened at 5.16 pm measured 7.6 on the Richter Scale.

Its epicenter was at 0.84 degrees southern latitude and 99.65 degrees eastern longitude at a depth of 71 kilometers in the seabed, 57 kilometers southwest of Pariaman or 78 kilometers northwest of Padang, West Sumatra's provincial capital.

"The quake occurred following a collision between Euroasia and Indoaustralia plates," he said.

The quake was also felt strongly in Enggano island around 90 miles from Bengkulu, Sumatra, populated by more than 1,500 people.

"People ran out of their homes and went to higher ground," Rafli Zen Kaitora, the coordinator of the island's tribal leaders, said.

People were still traumatized by the 7.8 magnitude quake that hit the island in 2000, he said.

The quake was felt at Modified Mercali Intensity of III-IV on the island and lasted for up to a minute, the head of Kepahiyan Geophysics Station in Bengkulu province, Dadang Permana, said.