Indonesia lifts tsunami alert after strong quake

Indonesia's meteorology agency lifts a tsunami warning issued after a strong undersea quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit the eastern Moluccas islands.

Indonesia's meteorology agency lifted a tsunami warning issued on Thursday after a strong undersea quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit the eastern Moluccas islands.

HT Image

There were no reports of damage or casualties after the quake, which the US Geological Survey put at a magnitude at 6.6 and depth of 93 km (58 miles).

USGS said the epicentre of the quake that struck at around 9 am (0000 GMT) lay 290 km (180 miles) east of Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province.

Local residents at Ternate island around 120 km (75 miles) south of the epicentre told Reuters by telephone the quake was felt mildly and did not cause massive panic among the people.

"I felt it but it was not that big. Windows and mirrors shook but nothing is broken," Wirdayanti, who works at a local hotel in Ternate, told Reuters.

Suharjono, the head of the earthquake department at the meteorology agency, told Reuters they had not received any reports of casualties or damage.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy lies in an area of intense seismic activity.

In December 2004, a powerful quake off Aceh province triggered a huge tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing around 230,000 people with most of the deaths in Aceh.