Strong quake jolts southern part of Java

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Jakarta - A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck the southern part of Indonesia's Java island Wednesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, an official said.

The tremblor shook at about 5:23 am (2223 GMT Tuesday) and was centred in the Indonesian Sea 340 kilometres southwest of Cilacap district in southern coast of Central Java, said Anas, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta. He said the quake occurred at about 33-kilometres beneath the seabed.

Anas, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said the quake was felt along a wide stretch of the southern Central Java coast, including the cultural city of Yogyakarta, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Yogyakarta and nearby regions has been struck by a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake on late May 2006, killing more than 5,800 people, injuring thousands of others and destroying and heavily damaging tens of thousands of homes and buildings.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, is prone to earthquakes because the country sits atop Asia's so-called "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent.