Sunday, May 15, 2005

Powerful Earthquake Rocks Sumatra Island

Sat May 14, 2:31 AM ET (Taken from Yahoo! News/AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A magnitude 6.9 undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sumatra island on Saturday, triggering panic across a large swathe of the region.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said it was unlikely that the quake would trigger a tsunami.

The temblor was centered 31 miles southwest of the city of Padang on west Sumatra.

Frightened residents ran from their shaking houses in several cities on the island, said Budi Waluyo, a spokesman for the agency.

Temblors have been a daily occurrence in the region since a monster 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck the region on Dec. 26 and triggered a tsunami, killing as many as 180,000 people in Indonesia and 10 others countries across the Indian Ocean.

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