Quake jolts Aceh, no fatalities

Quake jolts Aceh, no fatalities

JAKARTA: An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale rocked the western coast of Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province on Thursday but there were no reports of damage or casualties, meteorologists said.

The undersea quake occurred at 8:42 a.m. and its epicenter was 33 kilometers under the floor of the sea, some 17 kilometers southeast of Meulaboh, the main town in West Aceh district, they said.

The earthquake was strongly felt in Meulaboh, which was devastated by a 9.3-strong earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26.

"There are no reports of damage or injuries so far," said a meteorologist from the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta.

The 9.3-magnitude quake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster that left at least 217,000 people dead around the Indian Ocean. Aceh, especially its coasts, was one of the hardest hit areas. -- AFP