In one village, the roofs and walls of several damaged houses had collapsed. Debris and household items were scattered on the ground.
The quake caused light poles to sway and sent residents running out of buildings and onto streets in Tual, a port in the Maluku archipelago, videos posted by users on Twitter showed.
The Indonesian geophysics agency warned about a potential tsunami initially, and then lifted the warning.
“EARTH RUMBLING”
The quake was felt as far as Darwin, capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, where at least 1,000 people reported it to the Australian Geoscience agency.
“Sustained vigorous shaking here in #Darwin just now from what looks to be a pretty serious #earthquake to our north,” user @OreboundImages tweeted.
“Could hear the earth rumbling,” another Darwin resident posted on the EMSC website.
“Was huge! Went on for ages, whole house was really shaking,” still another Darwin resident noted.
Video posted by Twitter users in Darwin showed water in glasses and pitchers sloshing from side to side.
Source: CNA
