ISLAND VANISHES IN EARTHQUAKE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31767, 26 August 1968, Page 13

ISLAND VANISHES IN EARTHQUAKE

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

DJAKARTA, August 24.

An island with several hundred inhabitants disappeared and at least 200 other people were killed in a series of earthquakes and seismic waves in the Celebes Islands of Indonesia in the last two weeks.

The Social Affairs Ministry reported today that thousands had fled to the interior to escape.

The first earthquake occurred on August 10, causing a tidal wave to engulf Tuguan Island, off the North Celebes coast. The Indonesian Antara News Agency reported that a police patrol boat found that the whole island had disappeared after a second earthquake on August 15. Fifty - six bodies were washed to the mainland. The rest of the population of several hundred was missing. Reports reaching the Ministry said the earth split into a smoking crack 50 yards wide at the northern main-

land fishing village of Tambu on August 15, killing 93 persons.

At the nearby villages of Malaga and Dampela, 99 bodies were found.

The Ministry said no estimates of th? damage caused were available, but earth tremors have continued into this week. Passing ships have been asked to call at the islands to see what help they can give their 200,000 inhabitants.

Meanwhile, Antara reported today that four volcanos in the Sangir Talaud island group off the northern tip of the Celebes had begun rumbling and smoking after the earthquakes.