by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) April 14, 2012

Ten people died from the massive earthquake that struck off Indonesia's
Sumatra island earlier this week, official sources said Friday, revising
an earlier toll of five dead.

Wednesday's 8.6-magnitude quake triggered an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami
alert which caused little damage and few casualties.

"According to the latest data 10 people died," National Mitigation
Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

"Eight of the deaths were from heart attacks and the cause of the other
two deaths is unknown," he said, adding that all of the casualties were
in Aceh province, where 170,000 people died in a 2004 tsunami.

Nugroho said that most of the dead were aged between 60 and 70, and were
believed to have died of shock.

He added that four people were seriously injured and hospitalised,
including a child who fell from a tree. Eight others were lightly
injured, he said.

Indonesia reported minimal damage from the quake, and the aftershocks
that rumbled all night.

Damage was minimal because the epicentre was much farther offshore than
2004, according to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

Minimal damage was caused this time round because government regulations
ensured buildings have better resistance to quakes, according to the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and people were better
prepared.

"The buildings in Aceh are now stronger because the government has set
certain standards that oblige contractors to ensure anti-earthquake
aspects are put in place," UNDP national project coordinator for Aceh
Fahmi Yunus said.

Experts said an Indian Ocean-wide warning system -- that alerts people
of a potential tsunami, through SMS messages, smartphones and social
media -- helped spread the word across Indonesian Sumatra and other
nations such as Thailand and India, prompting people to seek higher ground.

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