JAKARTA, Nov 15 (NNN-Xinhua) — An earthquake with a revised 7.1-magnitude rocked eastern and central parts of Indonesia on Thursday evening and was potential for a tsunami, the meteorology and geophysics agency said.
Previously the agency released the quake’s magnitude at 7.4 before the revision, head of quake department of the agency Rahmat Triyono said Friday morning.
The quake struck at 23:17 p.m. Jakarta time with an epicenter at 137 km northwest of Jailolo of Indonesia’s eastern North Maluku province and the depth at 73 km under the sea bed, the agency said.
A tsunami alert is being imposed, Rahmat said, citing that the tremors were felt at nearby North Sulawesi province of central parts of the country.
A small tsunami of 10.5 cm was detected in the waters off Bitung of the province, Triyono said.
In North Maluku province, local residents rushed to higher grounds fearing a possible tsunami. Disaster agency authorities have also called people to evacuate, head of evacuation unit of disaster management agency in the province Yusri Abdul Kasim said on Friday morning.
“We have called the people, especially those living along the coast to immediately escape to higher grounds,” he told Xinhua via phone.
Evacuation is underway now, as the warning of tsunami is still put in place, the official said.
So far, there is no reports of damages or those injured by the quake in the province, and a risk assessment would be conducted later, he added. — NNN-XINHUA
