A 7.7 magnitude earthquake which struck waters off eastern Indonesia early Monday, killed one person and crashed several houses, an official said.
"Till 6:00 am on Monday, one resident has confirmed dead during the quake which hit Gorontalo area, located on Sulawesi island, and several houses including school houses were crashed,"Detik.com, a leading local website quoted head of Central Crisis Management from the Health Ministry, Rustam F. Pakaya, as saying Monday morning.
The quake occurred at 01:02 am local time forcing thousands of people in nearby coastal towns to flee homes, hotels and hospitals in panic. And till Monday morning most of the residents were still stayed outdoors because three big aftershocks hit the area, local reports said.
The epicenter of the quake was located 138 km northwest of Gorontalo city in a depth of 10 km.
Soon after the quake which lasted for more than two minutes, the local government announced a tsunami warning but it was lifted one hour later.
Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that battered much of the Indian Ocean coastline and killed more than 230,000 people -- 160,000 of them in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.
Source:Xinhua
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