Strong earthquake shakes Indonesia’s Sulawesi island

Associated Press
A woman and children stand in the doorway of a house during an earthquake in Palu, central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Monday in this photo taken by Antara Foto. (Antara Foto/Mohamad Hamzah/via Reuters)

JAKARTA, Indonesia: A strong, shallow earthquake rocked Indonesia’s central Sulawesi province Monday evening. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, and no tsunami warning.
The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 6.8 and was centered 79 kilometers (49 miles) southeast of the provincial capital, Palu, at a depth of 9.4 kilometers (6 miles).
Imam Faturrachman, a scientist with Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said the land-based quake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency posted photos on Twitter of what it said was a collapsed building in Poso, a city to the southeast of the epicenter. It said it had no reports of casualties.
El Shinta radio reported that residents ran from their homes in panic.
The first quake was followed by magnitude 5.0 and 4.9 aftershocks, also at a shallow depth.
Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage on the Earth’s surface.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire.” A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.