Moderate quake strikes Indonesia's Java island

19 Jan 2007 04:27:07 GMT

Source: Reuters

JAKARTA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake shook parts of Indonesia's central Java island on Friday, although there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, a meteorologist said.

The magnitude 5.7 quake struck south of Java at 9.44 a.m. (0244 GMT) at a depth of 33 km (21 miles), an official at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said by telephone.

Its epicentre was 272 km southwest of Bantul, a town in Yogyakarta province, which was hit by a powerful quake last May that killed about 5,000 people.

The official said there was no risk of a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey in a report on its Web site (http://www.usgs.gov) put the quake's magnitude at 5.9.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, which straddles part of the so-called "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific.

In December 2004, a devastating tsunami hit the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, leaving about 170,000 people dead or missing in the country.