Four dead after strong quake rocks eastern Indonesia
Ambon City: Four people have died after a strong earthquake struck Indonesia's remote Maluku islands Thursday, destroying homes and triggering landslides that buried at least one of the victims.
Terrified residents ran into the streets as buildings fell in around them after the 6.5-magnitude quake hit at around 8:45 local time (0045 GMT).
Two people were killed by falling debris, another died after being buried in a landslide while a woman was killed after falling off her motorbike while fleeing to higher ground, according to Indonesia's national disaster mitigation agency and the local search and rescue office.
People in Ambon, a city of about 400,000 people, were seen helping injured residents in blood-stained clothes, while images showed wrecked homes with collapsed walls and rubble strewn on the ground.
Some patients fled a local hospital as the quake hit, prompting officials to set up makeshift shelters outside the building, an official said.
"The impact was felt across Ambon city and surrounding areas," said Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquake and tsunami division at Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
"Many people were woken up by the shaking...it felt like a truck was passing by." The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 37 kilometres (23 miles) northeast of Ambon in Maluku province at a depth of 29 kilometres. The area was hit by at least two dozen aftershocks including one that measured 5.6 magnitude, Triyono said.
An AFP reporter in Ambon described scenes of panic as people fled their houses when the quake struck. Architect Suryanto Soekarno said a construction site where he and his employees were working was rocked by the tremor. "It was a really hard shock," he told AFP.
"Filing cabinets fell over and my employees ran away to save themselves. Some were injured but thank God only with minor wounds."
Initial reports said the quake struck offshore, but later analysis found it hit onshore, raising the potential for damage, according to Indonesia's national disaster mitigation agency.
Local BMKG head Oral Sem Wilar called for calm.
"People were panicking and started to evacuate in some places, but we are trying to tell them there's no need to panic because there's no tsunami threat," he told AFP.
The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth. It experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide.
In August, five people died and several were injured after a powerful undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's heavily populated Java island. Last year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
The force of the impact saw entire neighbourhoods levelled by liquefaction -- a process where the ground starts behaving like a liquid and swallows up the earth like quicksand.
Nearly 60,000 people are still living in makeshift accommodation nearly a year after the double disaster, the Red Cross said this week.
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Ashram Teacher, hailed as hero last year, booked for sexual abuse of minor boys
Ujjain: In September last year, a teacher at an Ujjain ashram “came to the aid” of a minor rape victim who was going door to door seeking help. The same teacher has now been arrested along with a caretaker for allegedly sexually abusing at least three minor boys at their ashram.
Three FIRs under relevant provisions of the IPC as well as under multiple sections of the POCSO Act have been registered by the police against the 21-year-old teacher, Rahul Sharma, and ashram caretaker Ajay Thakur. The police further informed that both have been sent to judicial custody, adding that there are many more victims who haven’t filed a complaint yet.
Ujjain SP Pradeep Sharma told The Indian Express: “So far three children have come forward and made the allegations. We have arrested two persons in this case.”
In September 2023, CCTV footage emerged of the minor girl, bleeding and partially clothed, after she was raped by an autorickshaw driver. The footage showed no one coming to her aid even as she walked around the area for an hour, with one resident even shooing her away.
Sharma had said he helped the girl after he spotted her outside the ashram. At the time, he had told The Indian Express: “This is a holy town, people here are supposed to be helpful, but no one helped her… there was no humanity.”
The police have ruled out any connection with the Ujjain rape case for now. “We sent through 200 CCTV videos and his role has so far been ruled out,” said a senior police officer. According to police, children from poor families were sent to be trained as pandits in this ashram, affiliated to the state Sanskrit board.
Around 10 days ago, a minor boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Thakur complained to his mother when he returned home. “The parents of the child came to the ashram. Then the ashram worker Thakur was sacked. Later, many more parents visited the ashram and levelled allegations,” said a senior officer.
The ashram authorities contacted police after several parents made allegations against Sharma and had a confrontation with the ashram official. An ashram official, Gajanand, said: “We called the police to help us but they arrested our staff. The allegations are false.”
However, the officer said: “When we arrived, we found that the ashram officials were the suspects. There are many more victims in this case and we tried to convince them to file a case. Policemen dressed in civil clothes also tried speaking to the children, but they refused as they were scared,” the officer said.
