A 6.2 earthquake has hit eastern Indonesia, with tremors felt on the popular tourist island of Bali.
The US Geological Survey reported the quake hit about 6:30am local time in the Sumbawa region, but there was no tsunami alert and no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The quake’s epicentre was about 33 kilometres south of the village of Tolotangga, which is 1350 kilometres east of the nation’s capital, Jakarta.
The earthquake was about 72 kilometres deep.
In a statement, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency confirmed the earthquake was also felt in the neighbouring province of East Nusa Tenggara as well as Bali.
The earthquake caused many residents in the areas hit to pour out from their houses, the agency said.
“The earthquake was quite long. Most people had just woken up and they started running out from their homes,” Djunaedi Garib, a resident of Hambala, southeast of the epicentre, on the island of Sumba, told AFP.
“My family and I also ran away because we were afraid,”
In an initial assessment, the USGS said there was a low likelihood of casualties or damage. Indonesia’s disaster agency said officials were checking to see if the quake made an impact.
It is the second time this month Indonesia has been hit by an earthquake.
On December 7, Aceh province was hit by a magnitude 6.5 quake that killed more than 100 people.
The world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
A 2004 quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh.
Today’s earthquake in Indonesia comes just one day after New Zealand’s south island suffered yet another termor.
The 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit near Kaikoura, the same place that was rocked by the 7.8 magnitude quake in November.
The earthquake hit 30 kilometres east of Seddon, a town in the South Island’s Marlborough wine region.
There were no reported deaths.
Source: AP and AFP
