Lucky escape for visiting Malaysian journalists as powerful earthquake rocks Indonesia

Ambadsador Rusdi Kirana and a group of Malaysian journalists after rushing down 16 flights of stairs in Jakarta

By Nasir Yousoff
Contributor to AsiaN

Jakarta: It was a lucky escape for several Malaysian journalists currently on a media trip to Indonesia after they felt the tremors caused by a powerful earthquake that hit the Banten province in Java, 120 kilometers from the capital.

The quake, put at a magnitude of 7.4, struck at 7:03 pm local time. It risked generating a tsunami several meters high and the local authorities promptly urged people near the coast to seek high ground for their safety.

The Malaysian journalists were at a media briefing given by Indonesia’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Rusdi Kirana Banten at the eighth floor of Menara Lion.

“The building started to sway, and this went on for a minute, bringing a bit of panic to the journalists and to the ambassador,” Managing Editor of Malaysian news agency Bernama Haji Nasir Yusoff, who was among the visiting journalists, said.

“All of them then took the staircase all the way down from the eighth floor to exit the building. Fortunately, they made it safely although some suffered pains as they exited to safety.”

According to the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, the quake epicenter was 147km southwest of Sumur-Banten and a tsunami warning has been issued for the southern part of Pandeglang, Lampung and Sukabumi.