DILI, East Timor - A strong earthquake struck off the coast of East Timor Wednesday, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami warning. But no large waves hit the tiny nation's coast.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the 6.2 magnitude tremor struck 262 kilometres northeast of the capital, Dili, in Indonesia's Banda Sea at a depth of 10 kilometres.
Residents in Dili did not feel any shaking and there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics agency issued a tsunami alert, saying it had been powerful enough to generate giant waves. The warning was later retracted.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that became Asia's youngest country after breaking from Indonesia in 1999, sits along a series of fault lines and volcanos known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
