Sulawesi quake claims one life and injures dozens

One person died and 38 others suffered injuries after a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Tuesday morning. The country's geophysics agency, BMKG, recorded the epicentre approximately 42 kilometres southeast of the town of Palu at a depth of 10 kilometres. Local disaster mitigation officials confirmed the fatality occurred in the Sigi region, though further personal details remain unreleased.

The seismic event caused widespread infrastructure damage across Central Sulawesi province, fracturing a major highway that connects three key regions. Authorities reported that the tremor impacted 67 homes, alongside various office buildings, bridges, and places of worship. While emergency teams continue assessing the full scale of the destruction, officials confirmed that the underwater displacement triggered no tsunami warnings for the coastline.

This latest natural disaster occurred in a region highly prone to intense seismic activity due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a vast belt of active volcanoes stretching from South America to the Russian Far East. The incident also revived harrowing memories for local communities of a catastrophic 7.5-magnitude earthquake in 2018, which generated a devastating six-metre tsunami that killed thousands of residents in and around Palu.

-Reuters