Jakarta: A magnitude-6.5 undersea earthquake
shook the western shore of Indonesia`s Sumatra island on Friday,
causing panic but no casualties or damage, an official said.
The quake struck late at night 74 miles (119 kilometers)
southeast of Pagai Selatan, an island off the western coast of
Sumatra, Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official
Gian Ginanjar said.
The quake struck 6 miles (10 kilometers) beneath the
Indian Ocean bed. There was no tsunami potential, he said.
Edi Firmanto, a resident of the Sumatra coastal town of
Bengkulu, said people fled their homes and rushed to higher
ground.
"I woke up when I heard my wife screaming in panic and
got out with our two children and headed up a hill," Firmanto
said.
They went home when a village chief announced that the
quake had no tsunami potential.
Indonesia rests on a series of fault lines that make the
sprawling archipelago nation one of the most earthquake-prone.
PTI
