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Indonesia issues tsunami alert after strong quake
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-11 09:03

JAKARTA -- Indonesia's meteorology agency issued a tsunami warning on Thursday after a strong quake, measured at 7.6 on the Richter scale, hit the eastern Indonesian Moluccas islandson Thursday morning.

The shake of the quake was felt in the nearby provinces of Maluku and North Sulawesi, an official of the agency Jajat Sudrajat said.

The quake rattled at 07:00 Jakarta time (0000GMT) with the epicenter at 122 kilometers northwest Ternate of North Maluku province and at 10 kilometers under sea bed, he said.

The intensity of the quake was felt 3 MMI (modified mercalli intensity) at Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, said Sudrajat.

The agency said the quake was potential to bring about a tsunami.

"We have issued a tsunami warning," Sudrajat told Xinhua.  

The Military command in coastal areas of Ternate had instructed the people to be on alert after the warning, according to an official of the national disaster management agency.

Indonesia sits at a vulnerable zone so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire" where two continental plates, stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, meet that cause frequent volcanic movements.