By Xinhua
Jakarta : At least nine people were killed and more than one hundred feared injured after a strong earthquake measuring 7.9 magnitude on Ritcher Scale hit Bengkulu province of Indonesia on Wednesday, Disaster Management Agency said here Thursday.
The agency official Firman Haye said that seven of the fatalities were found in Bengkulu city, capital of Bengkulu province, and two others in Padang, capital of West Sumatra province.
Until Thursday morning, strong and moderate aftershocks frequently hit Bengkulu province, scaring people to return home and settle outdoors.
"Many of the people in the city build tents outside far from buildings," the provincial red cross staff Sugent Suyatno told
Xinhua.
Outside the biggest provincial hospital in the city, soldiers, police and red cross staff built tents outside the cracked hospital buildings to shun possible collapse of the buildings, said Suyatno.
"Over 160 patients have been evacuated from inside the hospital building," he said.
Local television footage showed that patients lying on bed were moved out of harsh hospital buildings in Bengkulu and West Sumatra province.
