An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale rocked Aceh Province early Wednesday at 02:08:26 Western Indonesia Standard Time. There were no reports of casualties but some local residents said they felt the tremor. Banda Aceh resident, Ramsah, said the tremor was mild. The local meteorology and geophysics agency chief Syahnan said the quake's epicenter was located at 4.54 degrees northern latitude and 93.32 degrees eastern longitude. "The earthquake did not have a potential to trigger a tsunami," he said. The early Wednesday quake was the first in February. But in January, two earthquakes hit West Aceh town of Meulaboh and Central Aceh district town of Takengon, ANTARA reported. The January 28 earthquake that rocked Central Aceh damaged 600 houses and at least 28 schools, forcing thousands of students to stay at home. The natural disaster also caused local residents and the government to suffer material losses totaling Rp73.784 billion (1US$=Rp9,450), the district government's spokesperson, Windi Darsa, said. Like many other parts of the Indonesian archipelago, Aceh is prone to earthquakes. On December 26, 2004, the province's capital city was rocked by a powerful earthquake, which was followed by tsunami. More than 200,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others lost their homes.
