JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A strong earthquake has rocked Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua early Tuesday, but there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.0 underground quake struck at 6:41 a.m. Tuesday (2141 GMT) and was centred 247 kilometres (153 miles) west of Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua.
Its depth was measured at 52.9 kilometres (32.8 miles) beneath the remote mountainous region of the island.
Hendra Rahman, an official of the Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake was felt across the province and that the strongest hit area was Sarmi, a town on the northern coast of the island, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
But it did cause panicked residents to ran out of their homes, said Sutopo Purwon Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire." A massive earthquake off Sumatra island in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, mostly in Indonesia's Aceh province.
