Jakarta (dpa) - A powerful earthquake jolted eastern Indonesian islands on Maluku province early Saturday, triggered panic - but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage, while a tsunami threat was ruled out.
The temblor, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, rocked various cities in eastern Indonesian islands on Maluku province at 1:58 a.m. local time Saturday said Jabar, an official at Jakarta's National Earthquake Centre office.
But the US Geological Survey recorded the quake measuring at 7.7 on the Richter scale. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center meanwhile ruled out a tsunami.
"This earthquake is located outside the Pacific. No destructive tsunami threat exists in the Pacific or elsewhere based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," it said.
Jabar said the quake's epicentre was in the Banda Sea, about 200- kilometres south of Ambon, the provincial capital of Maluku province, about 2,300 kilometres northeast of Jakarta. It occurred at about 400-kilometres beneath the seabed.
Jabar also said the quake was unlikely to trigger tsunami as it was took place in the deep below the sea. "It's unlikely the quake could trigger tsunami. It was took place in the so deep below the seabed," Jabar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
However, he added, the powerful quake had jolted a number of cities in eastern Indonesia, including Ambon, Tual, and Saumlaki, and was felt as far as Sorong in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.
A local resident in Ambon told Jakarta's El-Shinta private radio that the quake prompted residents to run out their homes in panic.
"We have so far received no reports of structural damage or injury from those jolted towns," Jabar said.
It was the latest earthquake to hit Indonesia in recent weeks.
A massive earthquake triggered gigantic tidal waves that devastated thousands of homes and buildings along Aceh and North Sumatra's coastlines on December 2004, leaving up to nearly 170,000 people dead or missing, making it the worst ever natural disaster to ravage the country.
Indonesia, located in the Pacific volcanic belt known as the "Ring of Fire," where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.