Tsunami alert creates panic in Indonesia

A powerful earthquake in north-eastern Indonesia today caused panic, shook buildings on islands in the Maluku Sea, and triggered a brief tsunami warning.

The 6.5-magnitude quake struck 130 miles from Ternate, the capital of Maluku island, and 230 miles from Manado, the northernmost city on Sulawesi island, the US Geological Survey said.

“We called local authorities in Ternate and coastal areas to warn them of a potential tsunami,” said Fauzi, a seismologist who goes by only one name.

One hour after the quake struck, there were no signs of seismically triggered waves, and Fauzi said the tsunami alert had been dropped.

It was not immediately clear if the quake, which was centred at a depth of 20 miles, caused any injuries, while structural damage appeared to be largely limited to cracks in buildings.

Frightened residents fled their homes and at least one hotel in Ternate was evacuated.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that claimed more than 230,000 lives – 131,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh province alone.

A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

Today’s tremor came less than a month after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake hit in roughly the same spot, killing at three people.