A strong earthquake struck the eastern Indonesian islands of North Maluku on Tuesday, prompting panicked residents to flee their homes, DPA quoted officials as saying. The 6.1-magnitude tremblor hit Labuha district on the North Maluku island of Halmahera and nearby regions, said Hendrik, an official with the national Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta. Hendrik told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the quake's epicentre was in the ocean, about 40 kilometres north-east of Labuha and some 33 kilometres beneath the seabed. The area lies about 2,800 kilometres north-east of Jakarta. "Panicked residents fled into the streets because the tremblor they felt for six seconds was quite strong," Hendrik told dpa. But he said there were no reports of damage or injuries. A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck West Sumatra province on March 6, killing around 70 people, injuring dozens more and destroying or damaging thousands of homes and public buildings across seven districts. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to earthquakes because it sits atop Asia's so-called "Ring of Fire," where continental plates collide and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent.
