Finance
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s eastern province of North Maluku on Friday morning, but there were no casualties or damage, according to authorities.
The earthquake struck at 03:02 a.m. local time Friday (2002 GMT Thursday), with its epicentre 133 kilometers northwest of Morotai Island district and a depth of 112 kilometers beneath the seabed, but it did not cause a tsunami, according to the country’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency.
According to the agency, the earthquake’s tremors were also felt in the nearby province of North Sulawesi.
So far, the quake’s tremors have not caused damage to buildings or infrastructure facilities, according to Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the National Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency, as reported by Xinhua.
“There are no initial reports of damages or casualties after the earthquake,” the spokesman told Xinhua through phone.
“The residents in the Morotai Island district felt the tremors, but they were not panic,” Yusri A Kasim, head of the emergency unit of the disaster agency in North Maluku province, told Xinhua by phone.
Indonesia sits on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called “the Pacific Ring of Fire”.
Source:OCN
