Indonesia yesterday lifted a tsunami alert following a magnitude 7.3 undersea earthquake that struck off Flores Island, triggering panic in a region prone to fatal quakes, but apparently causing no damage or casualties.
The quake hit at a depth of 18.5km under the sea, and was centered 112km north of the town of Maumere, the second-largest on the island in East Nusa Tenggara province with a population of 85,000, the US Geological Survey said.
After an initial tsunami alert, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and later Indonesia’s agency lifted the warning hours after the quake.
Residents in the area felt the earthquake strongly, Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.
TV footage showed people running away from buildings that shook from the impact, but Flores Timur district chief Anton Hayon said no damage was reported.
“We asked people in the coastal areas to get away from the beach lines, especially in the northern side ... as there was a big tsunami there back in 1972,” Hayon said.
He added that residents had participated in a tsunami drill before and know what to do.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 270 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines that encircles the Pacific.
The last major earthquake was in January, a magnitude 6.2 that killed at least 105 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
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