A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of East Timor on Friday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said, prompting some people in the capital, Dili, to flee buildings, despite a tsunami ruling. Outside.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but eyewitnesses said that the quake was strongly felt by residents.
“It’s very big,” Frances Soni, information director for GMN Television in East Timor, told Reuters in a text message that a video circulating on social media showed people walking out of a shopping mall in Dili.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the quake had not issued a tsunami warning.
The earthquake was felt in the Australian city of Darwin, more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) away, according to Australian media reports and residents’ social media posts.
East Timor and neighboring Indonesia lie on both sides of the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, which is a seismically active region, where different plates meet on the Earth’s crust and cause a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
EMSC said the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers and struck about 29 kilometers east and southeast of Lospalos. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake had a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale and a depth of 50 km.
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