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MANADO, Indonesia - A strong earthquake shook buildings in an Indonesian provincial capital today evening, sending residents fleeing from their homes, witnesses said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the magnitude 7.3 quake but local television said some buildings were cracked in Manado, a city of 400,000 people in northern Sulawesi island, 2,200 km northeast of Jakarta.
"People panicked and ran out of their homes. They are still outside their homes," a Reuters witness said about 30 minutes after the quake struck in the Molucca Sea, 165 km east of Manado near the northern tip of Sulawesi.
The tremors lasted about a minute, he said.
Arifin, a teacher in the north Moluccas capital of Ternate, said people there had fled to high ground in fear of a tsunami, but none had materialised.
The US Geological Survey website put the quake's magnitude at 7.3 while Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency gave its strength as 6.5 on the Richter scale and initially said it could pose a tsunami risk.
But agency official Nurpuji told Reuters later: "There is no report of significant damage so far."
Poor communications in Indonesia often mean information on a disaster's impact is considerably delayed.
The USGS said the quake had occurred at 7.27pm (1127 GMT).
A massive tsunami triggered by a quake in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 left about 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province in Sumatra.
- REUTERS
