7.0 magnitude earthquake shakes Indonesia’s main island

Jakarta: A strong earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s main island of Java and tourist island of Bali on Friday, causing panic but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.0 quake was centred 96.5 kilometres (59.8 miles) north of Tuban, a coastal city in East Java province, at a depth of 594 kilometres (369 miles).

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said there was no danger of a tsunami but warned of possible aftershocks. The agency put a preliminary magnitude at 6.6. Variations in early measurements are common.

Videos circulating on social media showed local residents and tourists in the neighbouring provinces of Central Java, Yogyakarta and Bali panicking as houses and buildings swayed for several seconds. Some places ordered evacuations, sending streams of people into the streets.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire.” In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.