An undersea earthquake of magnitude 6.3 rocked parts of eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, causing some panic, but there no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.
An official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said chances of a tsunami were very low given the small magnitude of the quake.
The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said the quake had its epicentre in the Moluccas sea between the regions of Sulawesi and the Moluccas islands.
"We don't have any reports of victims," said an agency official.
The US Geological Survey on its website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov) said the quake had a depth of 70 km (44 miles) and struck at 0709 GMT.
Some residents in the city of Manado in northern Sulawesi fled their homes, El Shinta radio said, but the local head of the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Manado said he had not received any reports of damage or casualties. Indonesia is regularly hit by earthquakes.
The country is preparing to mark the first anniversary on Monday of a 9.15 magnitude quake off Sumatra island that triggered a massive tsunami that smashed into a dozen Indian Ocean nations, leaving 231,000 people dead or missing.
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