Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's visit to China has yielded fruitful results, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
Guo made the remarks in response to a media query on Orpo's four-day visit, which concluded on Wednesday. "China and Finland have long enjoyed friendly relations based on mutual respect and trust. Finnish Prime Minister Orpo's visit featured a packed schedule and yielded fruitful outcomes," he said.
At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Orpo paid an official visit to China, the first official visit by a Finnish prime minister to China in 17 years.
Finnish PM's China visit yields fruitful outcomes: spokesman
At least one person has died and several others have been hospitalized after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Maluku Strait early on Thursday morning, with the quake also causing varying degrees of damage to multiple buildings in Manado, the capital city of the North Sulawesi province. The quake struck at 06:48 local time Thursday at a magnitude of 7.4 and a depth of 30 kilometers, according to measurements by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
There were scenes of panic outside a hospital in Manado when the quake hit, with several seconds of intense shaking causing cracks to appear in the building of the medical facility which belongs to the Siloam private healthcare group.
Patients and medical staff were urgently evacuated to the roadside, with some seen in wheelchairs or still connected to intravenous (IV) drips, while others were even pushed out of the wards on their hospital beds. A car parked downstairs was hit by falling debris, shattering its windows.
"Some people were sleeping at the time, some had just undergone surgery, and others were receiving treatment. The earthquake damaged the hospital's ceiling, and I also saw some cracks in the walls," said Billy Lombok, the family member of a patient.
A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted following the quake as Indonesian authorities observed no significant sea level changes.
Patients rushed out from hospital building as 7.4-magnitude quake hits Indonesia, killing one
