DENPASAR (Bali) • An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck south of Indonesia's Bali yesterday, said European quake monitoring agency EMSC, causing minor damage and prompting residents and visitors on the tourist island to briefly flee buildings.
There were no reports of casualties and no tsunami warning from the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre or the Indonesian quake monitoring agency.
The epicentre was 102km south-west of Bali's capital Denpasar and was 100km deep, EMSC said. The United States Geological Survey recorded the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. A Denpasar resident said people ran out of their homes after feeling the quake.
Twitter user Marc van Voorst described the quake as feeling like "a heavy truck or train passing by at close range". He said there was no panic, even though his hotel in the Uluwatu area shook quite a bit.
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency distributed a photograph of damage at the Lokanatha temple in Denpasar, showing smashed masonry lying on the ground. Bali is a predominantly Hindu enclave in overwhelmingly Muslim Indonesia.
Mr Lius Winarto, a sales administrator at the Mercure Hotel Nusa Dua, said a small part of the building's roof was damaged.
"We felt the quake quite strongly... but thankfully no one was hurt and there was only minor damage," he said. "Everything has gone back to normal now."
There was minor damage at a school, a house and a temple in the southern part of Bali, online portal Balipost.com reported.
The quake could also be felt in cities on the neighbouring islands of Lombok and Java, Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency said in a statement.
The roof of a mosque in East Java's Banyuwangi city collapsed partially, another photo from the disaster mitigation agency showed.
The Transport Ministry said Bali airport was operating normally.
Indonesia often suffers quakes because it lies on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire. Its Moluccas Islands were hit by a 7.2-magnitude quake on Sunday that killed at least two people and prompted hundreds to flee their homes.
REUTERS
