Powerful quake hits Indonesia, no tsunami threat

A shallow undersea quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit eastern parts of Indonesia Monday. There was, however, no tsunami warning or immediate reports of any casualties caused by it, officials here said.

The quake, which occurred at 11.05 am, had its epicentre at 69 km southwest of Labuha port in the country's north Maluku province.

The temblor was at a depth of 10 km under the seabed, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

While the Hong Kong Observatory said it was a 6.8-magnitude quake, the US Geological Survey (USGS) observed it to be of 6.6 Richter scale. 

The quake caused panic, as patients at north Maluku General Hospital rushed outside the building when the quake hit the region and were reluctant to enter the building, a TV footage showed. 

In 2004, about 170,000 people were killed and a huge infrastructure was damaged in northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit countries along the Ocean, killing a total of 230,000 people.