Strong earthquake jolts eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA, Sep 16 (Reuters) An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rattled eastern Indonesia today, but there were no immediate reports of any deaths or damage, a meteorological official said.

The epicentre of the quake was on Seram island, 177 km northeast of Ambon city in the Moluccas chain of islands, said Jajat Jatmika from the Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency.

''There is no report of damage so far. We are coordinating with the disaster management office,'' he said.

The US Geological Survey said on its Web site the quake was of magnitude 6.0 and occurred at a depth of 10 km.

Earthquakes occur frequently in Indonesia, which lies along the ''Pacific Ring of Fire''. A quake of similar magnitude to Saturday's hit the city of Yogyakarta in May, killing nearly 6,000 people.

REUTERS SY VV1718