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TV grab shows the strong waves at the Pangandaran
beach in West Java Province, Indonesia, July 18, 2006. (CCTV
Photo)
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BEIJING, July 18 -- A two-meter-high
tsunami has crashed into beach resorts and fishing villages on Indonesia's Java
island, killing over a hundred people. Scores more are missing and thousands
have fled to higher ground. The hardest-hit area Monday appeared to be
Pangandaran, a beach resort long popular with local and foreign tourists.
TV grab shows a man is walking along the seaside in West Java
Province, Indonesia, July 18, 2006. (CCTV
Photo) |
There were no immediate reports of
foreign deaths. The mid-afternoon tremblor that spawned the tsunami was centered
240 kilometers southwest of Java and 48 kilometers beneath the ocean floor. The
extent of damage further up the coast was not immediately clear.
Roads are blocked, and power and phone lines cut.
Casualties were reported at several spots along some 180 kilometers of beach
affected. Indonesia is located along the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an
arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
(Source: CCTV.com)
Related story:
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 18 (Xinhua)
-- Monday's earthquake and tsunami off the Java Island had killed 172 people so
far, including three foreigners, said the information center of the disaster
relief team here on Tuesday.
Dead bodies were found in six areas along the
southern coast of the Java Island and the resort beach Pangandaran topped all of
them with death toll reaching 58.
The three foreign victims were from Netherlands,
Sweden and Pakistan, the center said.
Meanwhile, there were still hundreds of people
missing and the relief workers were searching through the smashed buildings.
On Monday, a tsunami triggered off strong waves of
five meters high along the southern Java coast. The water ran as far as three
kms onto the land and damaged houses and hotels near the coast.
The tsunami came following the step of an earthquake
measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, whose epicenter was located at 9.41 degrees
southern latitude and 107.19 degrees eastern longitude. Full story>>
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