Undersea quake hits eastern Indonesia

A STRONG undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale has hit the Moluccas islands in eastern Indonesia, an official at the country's Meteorological and Geophysics agency said.

The US Geological Survey said in a bulletin sent by email that the quake struck at 1128 GMT and put the magnitude at 5.8.

The Indonesian official said by telephone there was no potential for a tsunami from the quake, with an epicentre 122km northwest of the town of Saumlaki at a depth of 77km. He said residents felt the quake in Saumlaki and the island of Aru, although there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Joni Sabono, a resident in Saumlaki, said by telephone people had run outside after the quake, although he said there was no serious panic in his area.

“I felt it for 10 seconds, people ran away but there wasn't much shock because we are used to quakes,” he said.

Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes given its location in a highly active seismic zone. In some remote areas, it takes a long time to assess damage given patchy communications in the sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

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