EARTHQUAKES SHAKE INDONESIA, PHILIPPINES; NO TSUNAMI THREAT

JAKARTA: Strong, shallow underwater earthquakes shook western Indonesia and the Philippine capital region on Monday, but no serious damage was reported and no tsunami warnings were issued.

In Indonesia, a magnitude-6.7 quake that was 16km deep struck about 169km west of Pariaman, a town in West Sumatra province, the US Geological Survey said.

The Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake was felt in many parts of the province but there was no danger of a tsunami. It occurred just before dawn and was centered about 161km southeast of South Nias, a district in North Sumatra province.

Another earthquake of 6.4-magnitude shook parts of the Manila region and outlying provinces at dawn but there were no reported damages or injuries, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The offshore quake was set off by movement along the Manila Trench and its epicentre was about 110km west of Lubang island in Occidental Mindoro province, which lies south of Manila, the Philippine institute said. Its depth was about 28km.

Also, Hong Kong was shaken by an earthquake early on Monday, leading to a record number of local residents to report they felt tremors. The 4.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:29am local time on Monday at about 92km northeast of Hong Kong and near the coast of Southeast China, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Authorities received about 8,000 reports of minor shaking, the highest number since record keeping began in 1979.

INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES LIE ALONG THE PACIFIC ‘RING OF FIRE’ - THE SEISMIC FAULTS AROUND THE PACIFIC OCEAN WHERE MOST OF THE WORLD’S QUAKES OCCUR