Latest news with #Sumatra
Sky News
3 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Indonesia quarry collapse: Number of dead rises to 14
The number of people killed in Indonesia after a rock collapse at a quarry has risen to 14, officials said on Saturday. The Gunung Kuda quarry in the province of West Java gave way a day earlier, crushing more than 20 people. Twelve injured people were rescued and 10 bodies were recovered from the debris during search efforts on Friday. Rescuers then retrieved three more bodies later that day, while another worker died in hospital, bringing the death toll to 14, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement. Five more people are being treated in hospital with serious injuries. But six to eight others are thought to be still trapped under the rubble and the search continues. Local television showed emergency personnel, police, soldiers and volunteers desperately digging through the debris at the foot of a steep limestone cliff on Saturday. Other footage captured excavators trying to shift huge rocks and workers placing body bags in an ambulance. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the collapse, but illegal or informal mines are common in Indonesia, and bring the risk of landslides, flooding and tunnel collapses. On Friday, West Java governor Dedi Mulyadi said he had ordered the closure of this quarry, as well as four other similar sites in the province. Last year, a landslide triggered by torrential rains wiped out an unauthorised gold mining operation on Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing at least 15 people.
CNA
26-05-2025
- CNA
Indonesia seizes two tons of methamphetamine in its biggest ever bust
JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities seized about two tons of methamphetamine off Sumatra island in the biggest seizure of drugs in the country's history, its narcotics agency said on Monday (May 26). The agency linked the drugs to a syndicate in the Golden Triangle - an area where northeastern Myanmar meets parts of Thailand and Laos, which has a long history of producing drugs for distribution as far as Japan and New Zealand. Marthinus Hukom, chief of Indonesia's narcotics agency, told reporters that after five months of surveillance authorities last week sent ships to stop a vessel called "Sea Dragon Tarawa" and discovered the methamphetamine in boxes. Hukom said the drugs were thought to have come from a syndicate in the Golden Triangle and were destined for Indonesia as well as other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines. Four Indonesians and two Thai nationals were apprehended on the ship, he said. "This seizure is the biggest drug discovery in the history of drug eradication in Indonesia," he said. The latest seizure comes after Indonesia's navy seized a ship carrying nearly two tons of methamphetamine and cocaine worth US$425 million around the same area in the west of the archipelago earlier this month. One Thai national and four Myanmar nationals were also detained. A record 190 tons of methamphetamine was seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2023 as organised crime groups exploited weak law enforcement to traffic drugs, mainly via the Gulf of Thailand, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2024 report.
Reuters
26-05-2025
- Reuters
Indonesia seizes two tons of methamphetamine in its biggest ever bust
JAKARTA, May 26 (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities seized about two tons of methamphetamine off Sumatra island in the biggest seizure of drugs in the country's history, its narcotics agency said on Monday. The agency linked the drugs to a syndicate in the Golden Triangle - an area where northeastern Myanmar meets parts of Thailand and Laos, which has a long history of producing drugs for distribution as far as Japan and New Zealand. Marthinus Hukom, chief of Indonesia's narcotics agency, told reporters that after five months of surveillance authorities last week sent ships to stop a vessel called "Sea Dragon Tarawa" and discovered the methamphetamine in boxes. Hukom said the drugs were thought to have come from a syndicate in the Golden Triangle and were destined for Indonesia as well as other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines. Four Indonesians and two Thai nationals were apprehended on the ship, he said. "This seizure is the biggest drug discovery in the history of drug eradication in Indonesia," he said. The latest seizure comes after Indonesia's navy seized a ship carrying nearly two tons of methamphetamine and cocaine worth $425 million around the same area in the west of the archipelago earlier this month. One Thai national and four Myanmar nationals were also detained. A record 190 tons of methamphetamine was seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2023 as organised crime groups exploited weak law enforcement to traffic drugs, mainly via the Gulf of Thailand, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2024 report. Indonesia has some of the world's strictest anti-narcotics laws and drug trafficking is punishable by death.
Asharq Al-Awsat
23-05-2025
- Climate
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Indonesia Quake Off Sumatra Damages More Than 100 Houses
A 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, damaging more than 100 houses with no reports of casualties. The tremor hit at 02:52 am local time (1952 GMT Thursday) at a depth of 68 kilometers (42.2 miles), with the epicenter offshore near Bengkulu province, according to the USGS. The country's meteorological agency gave a higher magnitude of 6.0 with the epicenter at a depth of 84 kilometers, adding that there was no potential for a tsunami. The tremor damaged more than 100 houses and at least six public facilities in the provincial capital of Bengkulu city, Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, said in a press conference Friday. "In Bengkulu city, 140 houses were affected (by the quake), eight of which collapsed, meaning (they) cannot be repaired," AFP quoted Abdul as saying. In the Central Bengkulu district, two houses were lightly damaged due to the quake, he added. Abdul said no casualties from the quake were reported as of Friday morning.
CNA
23-05-2025
- Climate
- CNA
Indonesia quake off Sumatra damages more than 100 houses
JAKARTA: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Friday (May 23), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, damaging more than 100 houses with no reports of casualties. The tremor hit at 2.52am local time (7.52pm GMT on Thursday) at a depth of 68km, with the epicentre offshore near Bengkulu province, according to the USGS. The country's meteorological agency gave a higher magnitude of 6.0 with the epicentre at a depth of 84km, adding that there was no potential for a tsunami. The tremor damaged more than 100 houses and at least six public facilities in the provincial capital of Bengkulu city, Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, said in a press conference on Friday. "In Bengkulu city, 140 houses were affected (by the quake), eight of which collapsed, meaning (they) cannot be repaired," Abdul said. In the Central Bengkulu district, two houses were lightly damaged due to the quake, he added. Some locals in Bengkulu were woken up by the jolt and immediately rushed outside. "During the quake... (my) house's window shook strongly. That was what woke us up," Erick Catur Nugroho, 36, told AFP. "We spontaneously (carried) the children outside the house. When outside, all the neighbours that I saw were not in their house, (they were) in front of the doors." Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on 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. A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless. In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.
