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• A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has hit near Sulawesi, , with no damage or casualties reported.
• occurred at 6:55 am local time at a depth of 10 kilometres.
• Residents fled in panic, recalling past deadly quakes in the region.

A shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake has hit near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the United States Geological Survey said, forcing residents to flee outside but with no damage or casualties reported.

The tremor hit at 6.55am local time today at a depth of 10km with the epicentre offshore near North Sulawesi province, according to the USGS.

The country’s meteorological agency gave a lower magnitude of 6.0 and said there was no potential for a tsunami.

A shallow 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, forcing residents to flee outside but with no damage or casualties reported. Photo / Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System

Locals in North Sulawesi described the panic when the quake struck.

“I had just woken up when I realised it was an earthquake. It was strong, swaying from side to side,” Gita Waloni, a 25-year-old guest at a hotel in North Minahasa district in the province, told AFP.

“Objects inside my rooms rattled. I decided to get out. I was so scared there would be an aftershock while I was inside the lift. All other guests had also fled.”

The vast archipelago nation experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity and colliding tectonic plates that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2200 people.

And in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.