A STRONG 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast early on Monday, sending residents running out of their homes, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The quake hit at a depth of 60km under the Molucca Sea, some 175km northwest of the city of Ternate, according to the US Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and Indonesia’s geophysics agency did not issue a tsunami alert.
“We felt the quake and some people got out of their house but there was no real panic. There is no damage in my area,” said a man from Ternate called Budi.
Bani Nasution, a man who was in the city of Manado when the quake struck, said: “I ran out of my house and so did other people, but we’ve all returned to our houses now.”
A series of aftershocks also rocked the area.
Indonesia is still reeling from a deadly tsunami at the end of December triggered by an erupting volcano in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands that killed more than 400 people.
Indonesia landslide death toll reaches 32, says official
At least 32 people were killed by a landslide in Indonesia on New Year’s Eve, authorities said on Monday as they ended a week-long search for missing victims.
Rescuers who have been pulling bodies from mountains of mud called off the search with one person still unaccounted for after heavy rains triggered the deadly slides in West Java province. Several others were injured in the December 31 disaster.
West Java police chief Agung Budi Maryoto said: “Just one victim has not yet been found and the family has accepted it.” Landslides are common in Indonesia, a vast tropical archipelago prone to natural disasters and torrential downpours.
