6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes off western Indonesia, no casualties reported-Xinhua

6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes off western Indonesia, no casualties reported

Source: Xinhua| 2023-04-14 22:18:30|Editor: huaxia

JAKARTA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's western province of East Java on Friday, but there were no preliminary reports of damage or casualties, the country's weather agency and officials said.

The Southeast Asian country's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency first measured the quake at 6.6 magnitude before revising it up.

The agency did not issue a tsunami warning as the tremors did not have the potential to trigger giant waves.

The quake struck at 4:55 p.m. Jakarta time (0955 GMT), with the epicenter being at 68 km northwest of Tuban district and at a depth of 632 km under the seabed, the agency said.

Head of the agency's Quake and Tsunami Mitigation Division Daryono told Xinhua that the tremors were also felt in the provinces of West Java, Banten, West Nusa Tenggara, Bali and Yogyakarta.

"The epicenter is very deep so that its shakes reached a long distance and wide areas, including the whole Java Island, Bali Island and West Nusa Tenggara province. This quake is not destructive," he said.

Senior officials of the national disaster management and mitigation agency BNPB and the National Search and Rescue Agency said there were no reports of damage or casualties after the earthquake.

However, the disaster agency has worked to coordinate with the administrations in the provinces where the tremors were felt to assess possible impacts of the quake, BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

National Search and Rescue Agency spokesperson Yusuf Latief confirmed that there were no reports about houses, buildings or infrastructure facilities damaged by the tremors.

"We are monitoring the risks of the quake. Our personnel will be immediately deployed to the scene should the impacts be serious. Until now, we have not got reports of damage or casualties," Latief told Xinhua via phone.

Indonesia, an archipelagic country, sits on a vulnerable quake-prone zone called "the Pacific Ring of Fire."

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