Quake shakes east Indonesia, south Philippines; no tsunami

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook eastern Indonesia and southern Philippines on Wednesday, with no damage immediately reported and no tsunami warning issued.

Some residents tried to escape from houses in the Indonesian town of Tobelo in North Maluku province.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred 48 kilometers (30 miles) deep under the sea, centered 154 kilometers (94 miles) northwest of Tobelo.

Resident Pius Ohoiwutun said some people ran from houses when the quake shook. “I felt a little swaying as the lamps also swayed,” Ohoiwutun said.

The undersea quake was also felt in several provinces and cities across the southern Philippines, but there was no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

No tsunami warning was issued by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

Both archipelago nations lie on the “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Basin where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

A magnitude 6.1 quake also shook eastern Indonesia earlier Wednesday morning. No damage was reported.

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Nov. 21 killed at least 331 people in Indonesia’s West Java province. It was the deadliest quake in Indonesia since 2018.

In 2004, an extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province.