Moderate 5.6 quake strikes South Indian Ocean

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the South Indian Ocean today, the US Geological Survey said, although there were no immediate reports of damage and there was no tsunami warning in effect.

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the South Indian Ocean today, the US Geological Survey said, although there were no immediate reports of damage and there was no tsunami warning in effect.

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The quake hit at a shallow depth of 15.3 kilometres at 02:19 local time, the USGS said in a statement.

The epicentre of the earthquake was over 1150 kilometres south east of Male, the capital of the Maldives and a further 100 kilometres south of Colombo, Sri Lanka, the statement said.

The area witnesses frequent undersea earthquakes often located far from land.