Powerful quake rattles northern Indonesia

The 5.7-magnitude temblor was centred in the Sangihe archipelago but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

A powerful earthquake rattled Indonesia's northernmost region early on Monday, the US geological survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

HT Image

The 5.7-magnitude earthquake was centred in the Sangihe archipelago, 2,160 kilometres (1,350 miles) northeast of Jakarta and just south of the Philippines, the survey said.

Officials in Sanighe's main town of Tahuna said they did not feel the quake, which was centred deep beneath the ocean, and that they had received no reports of damage from outlying islands.

Indonesia, a sprawling island nation, sits atop a volcanically active region in the Pacific known as the Ring of Fire and is rocked daily by earthquakes of varying magnitudes.

A 9.1-magnitude earthquake on December 26, 2004, off the coast of Sumatra Island triggered a massive tsunami that killed more than 131,000 people in nearby Aceh province.