Indonesia hit by quake but no tsunami threat

JAKARTA: A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Tuesday but there was no threat of a tsunami and no immediate word of damage, a meteorologist said.

The earthquake, which hit at 11:37 am (local time), occurred at sea 138 kilometers northwest of the city of Bitung in North Sulawesi province, at a depth of 35 kilometers.
       
The office said that the quake had no tsunami potential.
      
"There are no reports of damage for the time being," Yusuf, from Indonesia's meteorological agency, told.

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

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