By DPA,
Jakarta : Indonesia briefly issued a tsunami warning after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake Wednesday afternoon rocked Java Island, including the capital Jakarta, triggering panic among residents.
The tsunami alert was cancelled about 45 minutes later, after there were no tidal waves, seismologists said.
The quake struck at 2.55 p.m. (0755 GMT) with its epicentre in the Indian Ocean, about 142 km south-west of Tasikmalaya district in West Java, about 30 km beneath the seabed.
The US Geological Survey put the quake at 7.4 on the Richter scale.
It shook buildings in Jakarta, sending residents running out of their homes and high-rise buildings in panic.
An aftershock measuring 5.1 magnitude was felt in Tasikmalaya about 20 minutes after the quake. Its epicenter was 138 km southwest of Tasikmalaya and 38 km beneath the seabed.
Reports from several West Java cities and district towns said people panicked due to the powerful quake.
“All people here panicked. I thought the roof was falling down,” Lia Amalia, a visitor at a shopping mall in Bogor district, about 60 km south of Jakarta, told detik.com online news service.
MetroTV reported from West java district of Cianjur that a number of homes were damaged following the quake, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.