Moderate quake strikes Indonesia's Java island

JAKARTA, Jan 19 (Reuters) A moderate earthquake shook parts of Indonesia's central Java island today, 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 am (0814 IST) at a depth of 33 km, 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 US 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.

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