Indonesia quake triggers tsunami warning
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-17 17:58
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 triggered a tsunami warning
Monday on Indonesia's Java and Sumatra islands and Australia's Christmas and
Cocos islands, tsunami and meteorological agencies said.
The earthquake, which hit at 3:24 p.m. (0824GMT) caused tall buildings to
sway in the Indonesian capital and at least one other city on Java Island for
around two minutes, witnesses said.
"There is a possibility of a destructive local tsunami in the Indian Ocean,"
Japan's Meteorological Agency said in a statement, adding that if triggered,
waves should start reaching shores in the region within an hour.
However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an earlier bulletin
warning of a possible tsunami, but said that based on historical data there was
no threat it would be destructive or widespread.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in Indonesia or on
Christmas Island.
"We haven't felt anything," Katrina Bird, a tourism official on Christmas
said by telephone.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the so-called
Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the
Pacific Basin.
A massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 216,000 people _ nearly
half of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.
On May 27, a magnitude-5.9 earthquake devastated a large swath of Java
Island, killing more than 5,800 people.
|
