4 killed, buildings damaged as earthquake hits eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA: Four people were killed and several houses and buildings destroyed after a 5.4 magnitude earthquake jolted eastern Papua province on Thursday, a disaster agency official said.

"The jolts of the quake were felt strongly here. Houses, a restaurant and buildings were damaged," Jonathan Koirewoa, manager of the operation control centre for the provincial disaster management and mitigation agency, told Xinhua via phone.

"Four people were killed during the earthquake. Now we are carrying out risk assessments of the quake," he said.

The country's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency reported the earthquake struck at 13.28 pm local time (0628 GMT) with its epicentre located 1 km southwest of the provincial capital of Jayapura and a depth of 10 km.

The earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami, it said.

Several aftershocks occurred after the main shock, according to the agency.

-- BERNAMA