A strong earthquake shook buildings in an Indonesian provincial capital this evening, sending residents fleeing from their homes, witnesses said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the magnitude 7.3 quake but local television said some buildings were cracked in Manado, a city of 400,000 people in northern Sulawesi island, 2,200 km northeast of Jakarta. "People panicked and ran out of their homes.
They are still outside their homes," a Reuters witness said about 30 minutes after the quake struck in the Molucca Sea, 165 km (100 miles) east of Manado near the northern tip of Sulawesi. The tremors lasted about a minute, he said. Arifin, a teacher in the north Moluccas capital of Ternate, said people there had fled to high ground in fear of a tsunami, but none had materialised.
The US Geological Survey Web site put the quake's magnitude at 7.3 while Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency gave its strength as 6.5 on the Richter scale and initially said it could pose a tsunami risk.
But agency official Nurpuji told Reuters later: "There is no report of significant damage so far." Poor communications in Indonesia often mean information on a disaster's impact is considerably delayed. The USGS said the quake had occurred at 7:27pm (local time).