January 28, 2006 - 6:39AM
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake has jolted a 2,000-kilometre swathe of Indonesia for two minutes, sending panicked residents fleeing to higher ground, fearful of a tsunami.
There were no immediate reports of a tsunami, injuries or serious damage.
The quake struck early on Saturday morning deep beneath the Banda Sea about 195 kilometres south of Ambon city in the Maluku Islands, the US Geological Survey said on its website.
Hundreds of people ran from their homes in some Maluku cities and in the tiny nation of East Timor, 440 kilometres to the south, said residents contacted by telephone.
"We poured into the streets in panic and ran immediately to higher places fearing a tsunami," said Salman Rumalesin, a resident of Bula, a Maluku mining town.
The quake caused cracks in some buildings in Ambon as well as in the Timor Hotel in Dili, the capital of East Timor, witnesses said.
"In addition to Ambon and other towns in Maluku, the quake also was felt in Sorong, Kupang, Waingapu, Makassar and Bali," Jusuf, an official at Indonesia's meteorological agency who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told the Associated Press.
Kupang and Waingapu are in the East Nusa Tenggara province while Makassar is in South Sulawesi.
The quake struck at 1:58 am on Saturday at a depth of 342 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.
Map highlighting Indonesia.
A major earthquake occurred at 1:58AM Saturday off the coast of Indonesia. It originated from the Banda Sea, roughly 195 kilometers from Ambon City. The earthquake measured 7.7 on the Richter Scale and occurred at a depth of about 341 kilometers said the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake sent people running for their lives as fears mounted that the quake might have caused a massive tsunami.

But good news came as the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center  said in an e-mail advisory, "this earthquake is located outside the Pacific. No destructive tsunami threat exists in the Pacific Ocean or elsewhere based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."

No deaths or major injuries have been reported as of yet.

In December of 2004, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck just off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a major tsunami, killing nearly 300,000 people and leaving millions more homeless.

Earthquakes frequently take place in the area due to it being positioned on a volcanically active region referred to as the The Ring of Fire.