A strong earthquake jolted North Sulawesi province in eastern Indonesia late Sunday, triggered panic among residents but there were no immediate reports of injury and structural damage, officials said, according to DPA. The quake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, jolted Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi, and nearby areas, said Fauzi, an official at Jakarta's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG). Warnings from BMG aired at a number of television stations said that the quake, which epicentred in the ocean about 160 kilometres southeast of Manado, could trigger tsunami. It occurred about 50 kilometres beneath the seabed. "Residents and employees at a shopping mall here in Manado ran out in panic," one resident told Jakarta-based Elshinta radio station. About an hour later, an 5.5-magnitude aftershock followed the initial quake, Fauzi said, adding that more aftershocks may still follows. It was the latest in a series of earthquakes to rock eastern Indonesia in recent weeks. Indonesia is located in the Pacific volcanic belt known as the "Ring of Fire," where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.
