Strong undersea quake jolts Indonesia

INDONESIA: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lampung province Friday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency here said.

The earthquake struck at 5:37 am (22:37 GMT) just 99 kilometres (61 miles) southwest of Lampung’s coast at a depth of 50 kilometres, the agency said.

“The quake was felt but there’s no damage reported,” Amran from Meteorology office told AFP.

He said that the earthquake carried no tsunami potential.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami of December 2004 which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province alone and thousands more around the Indian Ocean.

The archipelago nation sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Jakarta, Friday, AFP