Indonesia's buoys in early warning system damaged by quake

All of Indonesia's early warning system buoys were damaged when a 7.8 magnitude quake jolted the western coast of Sumatra island on Wednesday night, hampering the authorities to precisely detect the emerge of tsunami, an official from the national disaster agency said Thursday.

"Most of the damages are due to vandalism and lacking of budget for maintenance," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency, said.

Indonesia installed 22 buoys in the country's oceans in an effort to early detect threats caused by tidal waves following the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean tragedy which killed over 22,000 people.

"The situation made us fail to determine whether a tsunami will happen or not," Sutopo said.

A quake of 7.9 magnitude struck at 7 : 49 p.m. local time (1249 GMT) with epicenter at 682 km off southwest West Sumatra province's Mentawai islands, and at 10 km depth, according to the meteorology agency.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake hit zone of the so called the "Pacific Ring of Fire." Endit