Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Banda Sea today between the Sulawesi islands and Papua, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) and the US Geological Survey reported.
Since the quake was extremely deep (640 km), it was not powerful enough to trigger a tsunami in the Indian Ocean region.
Still, people in Kupang, a city in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, far south of the epicentre, ran outside, frightened, as buildings and streetlights swayed.
Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency did not report any damages so far.
This is the third major earthquake to hit the country in the last two days. On Wednesday, two large and shallow earthquakes, 6.8 and 6.9 respectively, struck within six minutes of one another off Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
In neither case was a tsunami warning issued, nor any injuries or serious damage reported.
Located on the Pacific Ocean’s seismically active ‘Ring of Fire’, Indonesia has regularly experienced deadly earthquakes and tsunamis.
In 2018, a 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami that left 4,300 people dead or missing. The 2004 9.1 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra unleashed a huge tsunami that killed 220,000 people in the Indian Ocean region, 170,000 in Indonesia alone.
