Residents flee as Indonesia hit by quake
A powerful undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia’s eastern coast today, causing residents to flee their swaying homes, the US geological survey and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami.
The 6.8-magnitude quake was 58 miles west of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, the survey said on its website. It struck 25 miles under the Manipa Straits, it said.
Residents in Ambon fled homes and offices when the quake hit, witnesses said.
“I was surprised, and everyone ran onto the streets because we really felt the shaking,” said Daniel Leonard from Ambon, around 1,900 miles north-east of the capital, Jakarta.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, sits atop a volcanically active region in the Pacific known as the Ring of Fire and is rocked daily by earthquakes of varying magnitudes.
In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered the Asian tsunami, killing more than 131,000 people in Aceh and leaving tens of thousands missing.
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