Strong Quake Shakes Indonesia

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong earthquake has shaken parts of western Indonesia.

The agency says the 6.1-magnitude temblor occurred early Thursday, local time, in the Kepulauan Mentawai region of small islands off the west coast of Sumatra.

The epicenter was about 480 miles (770 kilometers) west-northwest of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital on the island of Java.

Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist with the USGS, says there was no immediate word of a tsunami. "In our experience it wasn't strong enough to generate a large tsunami."

But he says his agency does have reports that the quake was felt in Padang, a city on Sumatra island about 145 miles north of the epicenter.

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Associated Press