A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia’s popular resort island of Bali on Thursday, sending people fleeing from their homes and hotels in panic. No tsunami alert was issued, and there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Some roofs collapsed, and witnesses told local radio and television stations they saw cracks in the walls of buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 was centred 100 km southwest of the island. It struck 60 km beneath the ocean floor.
“It knocked me off my motorcycle,” said one resident, Miftahul Chusna.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh.
