Jakarta, July 27: A powerful 6.2-magnitude earthquake has jolted the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a United States Geological Survey says.
Monday’s quake, which originated under the sea and was centered 135 km (85 miles) southeast of the town of Bengkulu, had a depth of 66.5 km.
No tsunami alert was immediately issued and there were no reports of structural damage or injury.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates meet, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
In 2004, a massive undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people from 11 countries across Asia.
Over 168,000 of the people killed were from Indonesia’s Aceh province alone, making the Southeast Asian country the worst-hit nation by the quake.
—-Agencies