Deep sea quake in Indonesia, no danger of tsunami

Updated at 3.50 PM

JAKARTA: A strong deep sea quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale on Wednesday rocked the Indonesian island province of North Sulawesi and damaged or destroyed more than a dozen buildings, officials said.

The quake struck at 7.02 IST and was centred 376 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Manado at a depth of 74 kilometres.

"There's no potential for a tsunami," meteorological agency official Andi Zurfika told the media.

The quake destroyed three buildings and damaged a dozen others on Morotai island near the epicentre off Halmahera island, but there were no reports of casualties, a district chief said.

"Besides a mosque and a madarsa (an Islamic religious school), a health polyclinic was also destroyed while the number of houses damaged now stands at 10. Two schools were also damaged, but there was no loss of life," North Halamhera district chief Hein Namotemo told Elshinta radio.

He said no one was evacuated or fled their home.

A 5.1-magnitude deep sea earthquake hit South Sulawesi on Friday causing minor damage.

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Indonesia was worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake in July on the south coast of the main island of Java also killed more than 600 people.