Just In: Indonesia's Bali Rattled By Powerful Quake‎

October 13, 2011

BALI, Indonesia (AP) – A powerful earthquake jolted Indonesia's popular resort island of Bali on Thursday, causing widespread panic and injuring at least 50 people, many with broken bones and head wounds.

[color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]The walls of some temples along the coast crumbled, and witnesses told local radio and television stations the roofs of some homes collapsed.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]The [url="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/U.S.+Geological+Survey"]U.S. Geological Survey[/url] said the 6.0-magnitude quake was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the island. It hit 36 miles (60 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]Although not strong enough to trigger a tsunami, the quake was felt on neighboring Java and Lombok islands, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]"It knocked me off my motorcycle," said one badly shaken Bali resident, Miftahul Chusna.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]Candy Juliani, a public relations officer for the Sanur Beach Hotel, said terrified guests fled the building.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]"We have special emergency routes for this type of situation, but everyone was so scared, they just ignored them," Juliani said.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]At least 50 people were hurt, many with cuts, broken bones and head wounds, said Wayan Sudanti, a hospital spokesman.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]Three were in critical condition.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.[/size][/color][/indent][color=#000000][size=4][indent=1.6]A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the [url="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Bodies+of+water/Indian+Ocean"]Indian Ocean[/url]that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.[/size][/color][/indent]