Strong earthquake jolts western Indonesia, no casualty reported

Jakarta, Sep 11 (IANS) A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia's western province of West Sumatra on Sunday, but did not leave casualties, officials and an agency said.Earlier, the country's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency released a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and then revised it to a 6.2 Richter scale, Head of the Quake and Tsunami Division of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency named only Daryono was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency."The 6.1 magnitude is fast information, the 6.2 is an accurate figure," he said.The agency reported that the quake struck at 06:10 Jakarta time Sunday (2310 GMT Saturday) with the epicenter at 161 km northwest of Mentawai islands district and the depth of 10 km under the seabed.The tremors of the earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami, it said.But, more than 2,000 residents in the district immediately ran to higher grounds for fear of a tsunami, said Amir Ahmari, head of the emergency and logistic unit of the district's disaster management and mitigation agency."One woman was injured as she was hit by a falling wood while escaping the quake. Cracks are found in two school buildings here," he told Xinhua via phone.Head of the Operation Unit of West Sumatra province named only Jumaidi told Xinhua that aid, including logistics and others have been sent to the quake-affected areas.
--IANS int/shs

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