Jakarta - A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Papua province in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, but there were no initial reports of casualties or damage, officials said.
The quake hit at 1:42pm (0442 GMT) with an epicentre about 56 kilometres northeast of the Tolikara region, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
The US Geological Survey said it took place at a depth of 75 kilometres, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said that “a destructive tsunami was not generated”.
A spokesman from the disaster mitigation agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the largest quakes recorded in Tolikara were of 8.1 magnitude in 1971 and 7.9 magnitude in 1926.
The Indonesian archipelago is situated along the seismically active “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific Ocean. The devastating 2004 tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.1 quake killed 170,000 people in Aceh province alone - and an estimated 230,000 in the region. - Sapa-dpa