Undersea earthquake rattles western Indonesia

Jakarta, Sept 9: An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 jolted western Indonesia today, but a meteorological agency official said there was no danger of a tsunami.

There were no immediate reports of any deaths or damage after the quake centred in the Flores sea at a depth of 573 km, said Muhaimin, an analyst at the meteorology and geophysics agency.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of some 17,000 islands that lies in the so called ''Pacific Ring of Fire''.

The country has been on edge since a tsunami slammed into the southern coast of Java island in July, killing around 600 people. It was the second tsunami to hit the country in less than two years.

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

REUTERS